


A Solitary Course

by w3dihFih4ddi



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Have a nice day, Multi, OCs - Freeform, Writing Is My Passion™, anyway pls enjoy and if not have a good day anyway, fight me @five guys, lots of them - Freeform, probably gonna be slow going with updates bc when am i ever NOT a procrastinator, so we can just talk about our differences over fries and burgers, unashamedly shipping them with canon characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-27
Packaged: 2018-09-19 02:10:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 28,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9413123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/w3dihFih4ddi/pseuds/w3dihFih4ddi
Summary: Thrust forcefully into a modern world after a century and a half of seclusion, Ines Lécuyer has many things to learn and no idea who to trust. To make matters worse, an old enemy suddenly begins to resurface, forcing her into a race against the clock to save everything she's gained before it can be ripped away from her again.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here we go, fellas!

Chapter 1: A Discovery in the New World

/\~/\~/\~/\~/\~/\

Ines narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the woman before her, hand twitching angrily around the little derringer concealed in her pocket. Her thumb caressed the intricate carvings on the gun's handle while her eyes resumed rolling around the one-room shack she'd been inhabiting for what felt like a forever restlessly, never quite settling on any one thing as she listened to the artificially sweet-smelling intruder prattle on excitedly about obscure rumors being substantiated. 

"It's just so amazing to be here! It's so amazing that you're, y'know, real," she gushed, "Of course it was extremely hard to believe when Director Pham- she's the director of our Board of Historical Investigations-presented us with the first inkling of your existence." She paused to take in some air, seemingly oblivious to the increasing tenseness stiffening Ines' shoulders, or the minuscule flexing of the muscles in her jaw. "I mean, drunken accounts of a woman so strong she could rip rail lines apart by herself from soldiers who participated in General Sherman's march to the sea?” Her hand flicked outwards, palm up and fingers outstretched. “Totally unbelievable! That is," she leaned forwards toward Ines conspiratorially, her curly hair brushing against her brown cheeks and perfectly manicured fingernails hitting the meat of her palm, "Until you start connecting rumors to enlistment forms and enlistment forms to censuses and censuses to people who just so happen to pop up in towns and cities and on boat rosters with no known history." She leaned back into her chair, a savvy gleam in her dark brown eyes. 

Ines' hand clenched violently around the stock of the derringer, finger curling lightly around the trigger. This woman- this 'Agent Cassidy Brown'- was infuriating her. All the work she'd put in to be untraceable, unnoticeable, thrown back in her face after she didn't know how many years, and to think, there were even more complete strangers who knew of her existence besides the one sitting so irritatingly close across from her. Setting her eyebrows into a dark glare, Ines straightened to her full height in the wicker chair she was occupying. "Get out of my bayou." It was thickly accented and barely above a furious mutter, but the threat was conveyed effectively enough. "Y'all ain't wanted 'round here." She waited for Cassidy to make a move; to get up and walk out her front door and never return, but the woman just wormed a bit further back into the tattered velvet armchair she had commandeered and smiled thinly. 

"I'm afraid I'm under direct orders not to leave what we know as Spanish Labyrinth Bayou without you, Ines." Cassidy rested her elbows on the arms of the chair and clasped her hands in front of her tacitly, all traces of her exuberantly friendly demeanor gone in favor of a negotiator's blank visage. "That gives you two options. You either pack up house and get on the boat yourself, or I administer an elephant dose of tranquilizer, have my little assistants carry you to the boat, pack up your things, and we leave anyway." She let that sink in, watching Ines weigh her chances of winning in this situation, eyes lingering a bit too long on the broad expanse of the mestiza's shoulders before snapping back to her face. Eyes widening in shock, Cassidy froze, resisting the urge to flatten herself to the back of the chair out of fear.

"You can just try it ma'am- see how far you and y’all’s 'elephant's dose' get before I tear y'all to shreds and feed ya to the gators." Forget infuriated, Ines was utterly incensed- how dare some arrogant upstarts come into her home, acting like they knew more about her than she did, like they knew more about what was best for her. "Get gone!" It was completely laughable that they thought that a large dose of some sedative would put her under quickly enough that they wouldn't be harmed in the process. 

Cassidy whipped out her walky-talky and fumbled with the buttons before warbling the order to fire the tranq dart into it, eyes bugging as the entire shack rattled violently on its foundations, floorboards and ceiling beams warping around the woman who was unaware that she and the chair she was sitting in were hovering an inch off the floor. 

"How dare you take airs with me- how dare you?" Ines stood up, her chair slamming into the wall six feet behind her and remaining pinned there by some unseen force, her braid writhing as if alive. "I'm perfectly fine and happy being here by myself not harming nobody and you sashay in all self-important like- like you own the place and start demanding things of me? How dare you!" The dusty paintings and other miscellany decorating the shack flew up into the air now too, whirling in a deadly vortex around her and Cassidy. Even though Ines had only just raised her voice to a normal speaking volume, it rang through her ramshackle home as if she were screaming. 

"Just take the fucking shot already, Landry!" Cassidy shrieked, finally cringing backwards as Ines stalked towards her, a bloodcurdling scowl stretched across her scarred face. "For christ's sake, take the shot!" Cassidy swung out of the chair, ducking behind the old thing and using it as a shield, backing up constantly even as it started to shred in her hands, Ines just getting closer and closer, much to her discomfort.

“Get out of my house! Now!” Ines got fifteen, then ten, then five steps away from Cassidy before a sudden pain bloomed in her neck and everything seemed to jerk to a sudden halt. Clumsily, she felt her neck for any foreign objects, tugging something cylindrical out of the flesh when she found it and struggling to focus on the unnaturally orange plume that decorated it on the opposite end of the needle. “What in tarnation…?” The little silver tube fell from her fingers and clattered to the floor, rolling away as she fell to her hands and knees. Shaking her head to try and clear it, Ines marveled offhandedly at how quickly she was being incapacitated, the shack stilling and all the odds and ends that had previously been flying around crashing to the floor with assorted clangs and shatters. This wasn't anything like what she'd been expecting- this felt even stronger than the myriad of times she'd overdosed on morphine, trying to get the same feeling as when she'd first taken it. Her muscles were shaking, increasingly unable to support her weight. Whatever an elephant was, Ines thought, it must've been freakishly large, possibly even bigger than a bear.

Cassidy huffed out a sigh of relief when Ines finally slammed face-first into the worn floorboards. Radioing in the all-clear for the other members of her team, she shifted the wreckage of the velvet chair aside with her foot and crept carefully up to their sleeping mark and nudged her cheek with a stick experimentally. No response. Cassidy let out the breath she was holding. 

As their first order of business they carried Ines out of her shack and onto the main boat they had come in, laying her down onto her back carefully. The only things not destroyed by Ines' violent outburst were an old steamer trunk which wouldn't move no matter how hard they tried to shift it and some grimy bottles swinging by ropes from the moss laden tree branches. An odd, unwelcoming, oppressive feeling settled over the group as they made their way back to their respective boats, the trees casting creepy shadows like outstretched fingers across the water. 

Cassidy shivered impulsively despite the humid air- she felt watched. The sooner they all got out of there the better. 

/\~/\~/\~/\~/\~/\

Ines' eyes snapped open, and she was immediately beset by the uncomfortable feeling that she was many miles from the ocean. She'd been away from the ocean before of course, but never this far, and always voluntarily. As it was, she was in a strange cot, in a strange room, in a strange building, possibly in a strange country, and she was angry, worried, sick to her stomach, and most of all her back ached something fierce.

A small, rapid movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she moved her eye to directly face the source. Her pupil focused immediately on a ring of glowing green lights trapped in a tube, the tube being attached to an arm that was bolted to the stone wall. A furrowed eyebrow prompted the lights to blink, the tube making a strange kind of noise she'd never heard before as it shifted slightly to line up perfectly with her eyes.

"Please, don't be alarmed," the tube said, voice cool and soothing.

Ines sat bolt upright, whole torso facing the strange object now. It started to speak again, and Ines shrieked, reflexively yanking the thing out of the wall with her magic and crushing it. She wanted out of there immediately. Looking around quickly, she noted that the only opening in the room was the heavy steel door that looked like it belonged more on an ironclad then set into a wall. Ines nodded resolutely to herself- after all, ironclads had never stopped her before, so why should it intimidate her now? Getting up, she paced the few steps to the back wall and turned back to face the door, getting into a sprinting position before launching straight at it. She rammed her shoulder into the door with all the force of a charging bull, skidding to a stop just outside of the ruined doorframe as the steel slab slammed into the wall behind it, caving it in slightly. A cacophony not unlike prison sirens started up, which only added to her panicking. Rolling her shoulder to pop it back into place, Ines took off sprinting again down the hallway, making turns to get her to where she felt the closest collection of living plants. 

Unfortunately for her, it turned out to be an office area that was positively choked with greenery, the center of the veritable forest being a pale brunette woman who barely spared her a glance before going back to furiously pressing buttons on the strange plank in front of her. There was the sound of a large crash on the opposite end of the room, both Ines and the woman snapping their heads to the source to see who it could be.

"Stop right there, pal!" There, standing in the wreckage of a floor-to-ceiling window, was a rather athletic-looking, tanned, blond male. He picked his way through the shattered glass towards them, an almost unnoticeable amount of swagger in his shoulders as he got into a fighting stance. 

Ines didn’t miss the way in which he deliberately placed himself between her and the woman sitting at the desk.

The brunette- Brinks, Claire, the nametag she was forced to wear read- made a sound that was half a sob and half a groan of pain and rubbed her eyes from underneath her glasses. "Not today, not him," grabbing her thermos, she knocked back a huge swig of her favorite tea (New Mexico X-Treme Stress Relief) like an addict and tried to ignore the obnoxiously loud man behind her to the best of her ability. Which was hard to do when he and the other woman in the room decided to engage in hand-to-hand combat like they were at fucking Renaissance Times or something. She ducked her head at the sound of ceramic flowerpots breaking, irritation fueling the angry throbs of pain at her temples. Spinning around huffily at the next crash, she fixed the both of them with a glare that could peel paint. "Lay off my fucking plants, you dillweeds! They help me relax!" She was thoroughly ignored, the two continuing to punch each other with wild abandon, completely oblivious to the leaves their shoes were turning into a pulpy mess. Fed up, she rose from her swivel chair and carefully edged into the blond jerk's blind side.

Ines was almost too busy badly losing the fight to notice the exasperated woman who was sneaking up behind the blond man. The woman just held a finger to her lips, raised her leg, and launched her shin into his crotch with as much force as she could muster. 

He stumbled for half a second before steadying himself, turning to the woman with an incredulous pout. "Agent Brinks, I'm just doing my job!” His tone was just as disbelieving as his expression. The shock in his demeanor covered up the slight sag in his shoulders from Agent Brinks’ apparent rejection rather nicely, though.

"Not near my computer you're not, jackass. I've been working on this for a month and a half! Take Xena here and scram!" Claire huffed as he lunged at the woman he had been fighting and put her in a headlock, waving her hand in a shooing manner as he frog marched 'Xena' away, an awkwardly congenial farewell on his lips. Plopping back down in her chair, she blushed and put a hand to her cheek. Alfred had looked at her! Like, dead on too! Amelie was so going to hear about this. 

Ines shifted uncomfortably in the mystery man's grip, dumbfounded that he could so easily hold her. Was he- "You uh, are you like- like me?" That was stupid of her to ask- he had to be. If anything he felt way more powerful than she ever had in her entire life, so much so that she could tell just how much he was holding back or else run the risk ripping her arms completely off. 

"What? Jeez, Agent Brown sure wasn't kidding when she said you couldn't really tell what you were saying." Her accent was so thick, and her muttering didn't help him to try and decipher what she'd said at all. "Could you maybe speak up a little?" Alfred leaned in a bit more, hoping to hear her more clearly this time.

"Nevermind- it uh, it ain't important." Ines really had nothing to say to him, she realized, so she just decided to stay quiet and observe where they went. They turned this way and that, all of the hallways and doors freakishly unremarkable and bland. What weirded her out the most had to be the carpet. It looked like they'd gone and shaved it- what kind of crazy people shaved their carpets? They stopped their trek suddenly at one of the many doors, the man swiping something in a silver box and carefully nudging it open with his hip when it made a noise. Inside was a long table with about a dozen chairs around it, the man leading her to the one furthest from the door, which had closed and appeared to be locked by the same mechanism as in the hallway. 

"I'm gonna trust you not to do anything dumb while we wait for Director Pham and Agent Brown to show up, okay?" Alfred smiled awkwardly when she just glanced at him, going back to counting the number of dots on the ceiling tiles or whatever she was doing a few seconds later. Okay, creepy. The analog clock hanging on the wall was the only thing filling the silence between them, its incessant ticking counting the seconds until someone came to facilitate conversation. He couldn't even hear her breathing, it was like she was dead or something. He shivered to himself, jumping slightly when the door issued another beep. 

"The cavalry has arrived, Mr. Jones." Cassidy swept into the room with a theatrical level of pomp, holding the door open for the Director to walk through. 

Ines turned her head slowly to look at the person who spoke so familiarly, flying out of her seat immediately when she saw who it was. "You! What have you done," she jabbed her pointer finger in Cassidy's direction, rage seeping into her expression. "Why did you take me away from the sea?" Cassidy just froze, a half-startled smile on her face. "Answer me!" A new woman coughed, getting Ines' attention. She was short, shorter than Agent Brown, and her shiny black hair was trimmed neatly in a style Ines had never seen before. Ines marveled at how impossibly petite and graceful she was, and suddenly felt altogether too bulky and obtrusive- her skin too, was flawless, its pale olive complexion unmarred by any previous or current wounds. She was, in a word, exquisite.

"My name is Pham Minh, and I am the one who gave the order to bring you here." Minh would have been lying if she'd told anyone that she wasn't intimidated by Ines. To have all the fury of someone who was five inches taller and who outweighed you by at least thirty pounds focused solely on you? Terrifying. One glance at Mr. Jones assuaged most of those fears however. He was there to control Ines and keep her from lashing out like she had in her shack. "Please, have a seat. We have many things to discuss, yes?" The tension in the room eased a bit when Ines retook her seat, and Minh decided to capitalize and start her explanation. "You were brought here because your very existence revolutionizes the way we think about people like you and Mr. Jones here." Minh paused, trying to read Ines' expression, which had gone curiously slack. Perhaps they should look into counselling sessions with HR? "He represents a nation- this nation. The United States of America. You however, are an enigma to us." Minh was starting to get creeped out and more than a bit worried by Ines' glassy expression, though she couldn’t shake the feeling that Ines’ attention was focused on her. "You cannot be France or Spain, or even the Cherokee Nation or any other Native American Nation, because we know who and where those people are." Was it just her, or was the room beginning to get much colder? She rubbed her arm to try and warm it, eyes flicking from Cassidy to Alfred and then back to Ines. "To make a long story short, you will be living with Mr. Jones until further notice-”

"You have a death about you," Ines said vacantly, eyes focused not just on Minh but also the air around the woman, looking for any other abnormalities than what she had already observed. "It isn't yours.” Refocusing, she brushed the magic away from her eyes and immediately noticed Minh’s uncomfortable expression.

“You- may go with Mr. Jones as Agent Brown instructs. I’m afraid I must take my leave- important matters to attend to.” Minh knew she was being obvious about her real intentions. Important matters. As if. Ines was a lot more...interesting than she had envisioned. She got up and tucked her chair slightly faster than was socially acceptable and practically bolted out of the room.

The door had hardly closed before Cassidy burst into a fit of giggles. "Yikes Mr. Jones, got a real charmer of a new roommate there, doncha?" She wheezed out between snorts of laughter, her nose crinkling with mirth. "I wonder what Agent Brinks will think of this?" The sly gleam that was a constant in Cassidy's eyes was back as she side-eyed Alfred, gauging his reaction. "Ran her way awful fast when you heard which way Ines here was turning, huh?" Chortles filled the air. Truth be told, she was absurdly frightened of Ines. The way the taller woman had immediately lashed out at her when she walked into the room had given her flashbacks to the shack, and her leg was still bopping under the table from the adrenaline that interaction had sent flooding into her system. She wasn’t going to show Ines that she was afraid of her- like her grandmother always said: laugh in the face of danger, and suddenly you are less interesting for a meal. 

Alfred shot Cassidy a dirtier look than Ines had and rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Agent Brown." He turned back to Ines, the barest hint of shell pink flushing his ears. "Anyway, I'm Alfred- Alfred F. Jones. I guess we're gonna have to start getting along better, yeah?" He smiled his usual smile and shook her hand.

Ines clasped his hand in kind, a bit dazzled by Alfred's thousand-watt grin. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad, she mused- as long as Cassidy and Minh stayed away from her and nothing else too loud or unsettling happened. There was still the lingering tightness in her chest and the feeling of impending doom, but she could work around that, right? Of course she could.


	2. A Whole New World...of Technology

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Real talk I am plotting the rest so I should have chapter 3 up soon!

Chapter 2: A Whole New World…of Technology

/\~/\~/\~/\~/\~/\

"Hey, Charles, dude, my main man! Could really use your help here buddy!"

The russet-haired male in question lifted his head, eyes tightening in annoyance at the fluorescence now flooding his room and the loud slap of a hand on his office door. "It's Agent Liston, Mr. Jones," he corrected sharply, eyes flickering between the intruder and his stoic companion. "Shouldn't you be bothering Agent Brinks with this?" His eyebrow arched teasingly as Alfred spluttered unintelligibly, his mouth quirking smugly. Shifting to face the woman Alfred had come in with, Agent Liston shot her a half-interested look and raised his cup of tea to his lips, taking a sip and letting the now lukewarm liquid roll over his tongue. So this was Ines Lécuyer. "And you would be...?" He trailed off, taking another sip of his drink, waiting for her to supply an answer on her own. Things would just look better that way, seeing as she wasn't even in the database yet.

Ines didn't know what to do with herself- answer the man or stay silent. She let the door close, struck suddenly by how dark it was in his office. The only light in the large space came from candles of varying sizes- there were enormous ones as big around as her head and ones as tall as she was and little tea lights that rested comfortably in their equally-as-tiny votives. And there was Charles. He sat half in and half out of shadow, in one hand a text from one of the many floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that lined the walls and in the other a paper-thin bone china teacup, gray illustrations of idyllic landscapes decorating it. His hazel eyes however, were solidly on her, expression somewhat scathing in nature. Ines gazed right back at him, intimidated by his stern bearing.

The somewhat tense staring contest was broken by Alfred's awkward laughter, which tapered off once Ines' and Charles' attention actually turned to him. "Ha, yeah. This is Ines, Charles. She doesn't like to talk much from what I can tell," Alfred flashed another (hopefully reassuring) smile at Ines while he tried to avoid the dark glare Charles was sending him. "At least, not to to complete strangers. Anyway, Cassidy said Ines needed to stop by the personnel and technology departments before she was cleared to leave with me and you, my lucky friend, were closest to the boardroom!" Alfred had spun one of the uncomfortable, lacquered teak chairs that were placed in front of Charles' desk and sat in it, leaning forwards with his arms hanging over the backrest. "So could you work your magic for me and get the right papers pulled please?" Alfred pressed his palms together in a begging manner, elbows resting on the very edge of the desk. 

Snapping his book closed, Charles set it and his teacup down before sliding a crisp manila folder into view and flipping it open. "Already covered." He gestured for Ines to sit next to Alfred in the other chair, addressing her more directly once she had. "Fill in the appropriate information where indicated- fully, in print, blue or black ink preferable, and please," his voice took on a very vaguely threatening tone, "For the love of all that is holy, file it through me within the next three to five business days." He suppressed a scream as Ines began to reach for one of his pens, resisting the urge to slap her hands away indignantly. "Not here! Go do them somewhere else!" His aloof facade cracked slightly as he glowered at Ines. "I'm busy!" Which wasn't a lie per se, because he'd just gotten to a really good part in Stephanie Queen's latest absurdist fantasy novel 'That', and he was not going to be further distracted from it.

"Yeah yeah, we're going, calm down," Alfred grinned, grabbing the folder and Ines and edging towards the door. "Books can't run away y'know." Charles just grabbed his book and reopened it in response. 

Charles pressed his lips into a thin line, making a shooing gesture as they left. "Cunt." He muttered good-naturedly, draining the rest of his tea in one gulp. 

"He was uh- he was interesting." Ines said. She couldn't believe it, but it was actually a few degrees warmer in the hallway than in Charles' office, even with all of the candles. 

"Oh, Charles? Yeah. He's a damn commie spy though- I'm at least seventy percent sure." Alfred said, rounding a corner and starting down a new hallway towards their next destination. "We're going to see Amelie next- she's the tech admin, which is short for 'she has a doctorate in the history of modern scientific advancement'. She'll set you straight." He stopped at a dead end in front of two sets of sleek silver doors, depressing a triangle-shaped button that was pointed upwards and taking a step back while he waited for the elevator to arrive. "This whole batch of admins are my favorite in a while, actually. They're brilliant, even the shady ginger." The doors chimed, swishing open promptly. Alfred put his palm over the door slot to keep it from closing on them and gestured for Ines to get in first, which she did after a moment of hesitation. When the elevator got to the twelfth floor he didn't have to wait for her this time, the cajun practically racing out of it to the wall opposite the metal doors. "Man, I felt like that too when I rode one of these the first time. We're almost there though." Alfred ran a hand through his hair, the honey-colored strands falling back into place with ease of habit. "You'll probably get the latest Yphone, which'll be fun, and Amelie'll show you how to use it right so don't worry about it too much, okay?" He reassured, stopping to open the appropriate door and simultaneously nudge Ines into the room ahead of him, a sheepish grin taking up residence on his face. 

It took Ines about three seconds to process what was going on, and less than a second longer to completely shut down. She slammed her hands over her ears when the blonde at the circular desk tried to speak to her, black eyes clamping shut in an effort to block out all of the bright colors and varied clutter in the room. It was far too much far too fast, a dam breaking and the whole ordeal of the last twelve hours catching up with her in one fell swoop. So much for having any semblance of control over her life anymore. She began to hum dissonantly, rocking slightly on her heels, breaths erratic as hot tears welled in her eyes. 

Amelie carefully picked her way around the outside of her desk, casting a worried glance to Alfred only to find him looking like a deer in headlights at Ines' condition. She placed a tentative hand on Ines' shoulder, but choked on her half-formed query when Ines' eyes flew wide, the taller woman snapping viciously at her. Amelie froze, startled by the unnatural white tears that were tracking down Ines' cheeks, steam curling off of them as they came into contact with the air. 

"Don't touch me with your filthy hands you fucking harlot," Ines shrieked, "Don't touch me! Don't touch me! Don't touch me! Don't touch me! Don't touch me!" Terrified screams trailed off into weak sobs, any further exclamations unintelligible even to herself. She wound into a crouched fetal position and started rocking even more vigorously, fat globs of molten iron rolling haphazardly off her chin. 

At this point Amelie had backed away from Ines' panicking form and vaulted over the top of her desk, crouching behind it and trying to steady her own breathing lest she be reduced to the same state. 

Thundering footsteps raced down the hall towards the three of them and Alfred couldn't have been happier; he had no earthly idea how to handle not just one, but two panic attacks, and at the same time no less. The door slammed open, revealing Agents Brinks and Liston. 

"What the fuck did you do, Jones?" Charles seethed, shoulders tensed and hands squeezed into fists as his eyes flashed furiously. "You're gone from my office not even fifteen minutes and I hear Amelie screaming like a banshee-" 

"It wasn't Amelie, it was Ines-"

"Oh, like that's any better, and again, what the fuck did you do!" The statement wasn't so much interrogative now as it was exclamatory, the ginger's tone demanding. 

"I don't know! She walked in here, took one look at the place and started bawling!" Alfred retorted, glancing briefly in Amie's direction as Agent Brinks walked towards her. "Amelie tried to ask her what was wrong but Ines lost it and bit her head off!" He threw his hands up defensively. 

Across the room, Claire was gently questioning Amelie. "Honey, what happened?" It was hard to focus just on her friend, the nurturing part of herself worried for Ines as well. 

"I think she's having a panic attack or she's overloaded or- or- she-"

"Amelie, just breathe- Charles and I are here now, we'll take care of this." She waited for the blonde to nod in agreement before making her way over to Ines and squatting in front of her. "Are you okay? Can you tell me what's wrong sweetie?" Immediately, Claire regretted being quite that close to Ines, her eardrums ringing painfully. 

"I wanna go home! I didn't even wanna come here!" 

"What," Alfred froze, surprise morphing quickly to wrath, "What did you just say? They kidnapped you?" His eyes slitted when the sobbing woman nodded in affirmation. "Someone is fucking hearing from me, I'll tell you that much!" He blew past Charles, storming angrily in the direction of the Director's office. Some stray puzzle pieces were starting to click together, and he did not like the picture they painted.

Claire huffed in kind, getting up to follow after the nation before rethinking it and staying by Ines' side. "I'm so sorry." She squeaked as Ines suddenly uncovered her ears and wrapped her arms around her knees instead, a slight hitch to her rocking before the pattern was righted. She patted Ines' shoulder, whispering soothing words to her, and wishing that the actual office councillor were here to do this instead- they at least had a degree in dealing with these sorts of situations. She looked to Charles, but all he could offer her was a shrug.

/\~/\~/\~/\~/\~/\

Alfred's gaze kept straying from the highway to rest on Ines' sleeping figure in the rear-view mirror, the subtle rise and fall of her chest the only indicator she was actually alive. It was a stark contrast from the weeping mess she had been just an hour previous, and he marveled incredulously at the fact that the custodial staff had scraped enough cooled iron off of Amie's office floor that they could melt it into an ingot if they so chose. His hands clenched around the steering wheel, thoughts returning to why she'd been crying in the first place.

They'd told him she'd come willingly. That she'd practically raced to the boat, excited by the prospect of the modern world. He was fucking stupid, wasn’t he?

He hadn't thought anything of it when she had bolted out of her 'waiting room' (he sneered at the blatant sugarcoating, it was a cell with a three inch thick steel door) to race around the corridors. He'd run to Agent Brinks’ side because he thought she might've accidentally hurt the mortal in her excitement, but now that he thought about it she'd angled herself away from Agent Brinks as much as possible. Ines had acted more like a rabbit than anything else. It also explained the blatantly off phrasing in the boardroom. ‘I am the one who gave the order to have you brought here’? That was just plain shady. Alfred slammed his skull into the car seat's headrest in frustration. Of all the times possible for him to be imperceptive, why then? Ines must think he was a dick. He groaned, flipping his blinker and turning of off the highway and into the actual town of Vigilance, Missouri, and towards the nearest WacRonalds. He had a mighty need for a WacSupreme, a large fry, and a huge vanilla milkshake. He made the order double to account for Ines and paid, unwrapping his burger before he was even on the road to the subdivision where he lived. 

"What's that smell?"

Alfred screamed around his mouthful of burger, almost veering into the guardrails on the side of the road. His eyes snapped to the rear-view mirror and he jumped slightly, Ines' intense eyes meeting his frightened ones in the reflection. "It's…WacBurger?" He supplied carefully, mouth still full of soggy bread and processed meat. She nodded uncomprehendingly and he realized that she was still half-asleep. He swallowed his food, watching as her eyelids drooped and she slumped back into her seat before he turned them back to the road. 

Alfred pulled into his driveway and shut the sedan off, just sitting there in the silence and the dusk for a moment, listening to the crickets chirp and the cicadas hum. The paper of the WacRonald's bag crinkled, reminding him of where he was and what he had yet to do. Alfred felt impossibly tired, barely able to go through the motions of carrying Ines inside to a guest room and locking the car door. He hesitated at his storm door, blue eyes tracking the movement of a jet through the night sky before he sighed and closed the front door anyway, locking and bolting it. The lights in the house were off, something he was grateful for as he finished his shitty meal and put Ines' portion in the fridge for her breakfast the next day. His glasses landed too noisily on his bedside table and he didn't even bother changing into pajamas or crawling under the covers or even taking off his shoes; he just collapsed onto his mattress face-first and slept. 

The loud chime of his doorbell roused Alfred. A once-over in the mirror showed minimal wrinkling to fabric of his clothing so he just went with it, the door to his bedroom closing softly behind him. It rang again, and he sped downstairs to answer the door before it became annoying. "I'm coming, I'm coming," he shouted, "Chill the fuck out, okay?" The last portion was muttered- he was in no mood for confrontation right now. He unlocked the door and swung it open, snarky greeting dying on his lips at the sight of Agent Brinks and a few of her friends dumbfounding him. "What're you guys doing here?" What else was Director Pham not going to mention? The next thing he knew, she'd be telling him the middle toe on her left foot was missing a segment.

"Well," Agent Brinks began sheepishly, the palm of her hand rubbing the back of her head, "We're here to help Amelie help Ines." A nerve-wracking second passed before Alfred opened the door wider and stepped aside, letting them all into his home. She noticed that he was wearing the same outfit from yesterday, an old, oily ketchup stain on the leg of his jeans. 

"Just... Go sit on the couch. I'm getting Ines."

They nodded, unwilling to provoke him more than he already was.


	3. Sleeping Dogs are Best Left to Lie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha holy FUCK im sorry this is really late, but it's also really long so there's that. Enjoy!!

Chapter 3: Sleeping Dogs are Best Left to Lie

/\~/\~/\~/\~/\~/\

Ragged intakes of breath, the bitter chill of damp air, and suddenly she was awake, hand lashing out to wrap around the wrist of the person touching her and pulling viciously. A wet, ripping, popping noise accompanied a strangled yelp that drew her attention to who she'd just attacked, an awkward, slightly afraid smile forming rapidly on her expression. 

"Oh holy shit," Alfred wheezed, "I think I'm gonna throw up." Placing his good hand to his abdomen, he let the wave of nausea work itself out in the form of dry heaving. "Okay, yeah. This is cool." He took a deep breath and balled his hand into a fist, air hissing between his teeth as he rolled this arm back into place. "Totally fine now- feeling just- just super-"

"I- I uh," Ines interjected timidly, "I'm sorry?" Alfred fixed her with a look she'd only seen on people who were absolutely wallpapered. Not good.

He heaved a long, wizened sigh. "It's cool, dude." Blue eyes landed on the torn, newly red sleeve of his white shirt, and he let out a defeated groan. Less cool. "I just got this," he whined, "Literally like two weeks ago!" Fifty bucks, down the drain. 

"I'm uh- I'm real sorry sir- honest I am," she began to scratch at the cuticles of her fingers, "I didn’t mean to do all that I swear! You just gave me start is all, I didn't m-"

"Hey now, calm down," he soothed, "I said it was fine, didn't I?" The last thing he needed was Ines having another panic attack and accidentally hurting herself or someone else. "It was my fault for scaring you anyway." He extended his hand, watching her black eyes flit carefully between it and his face as she deliberated whether or not to take it. 

Ines tamped down what nervousness she could and grasped his hand, using it as leverage to stand. She timidly returned the grin Alfred gave her, rocking on her heels a little bit to get the very end of her braid to slap against the back of her knees to calm herself somewhat. Wherever she was now was much more soothing than wherever she was previously, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t nervous about being here. “Are y’all gonna let me head home anytime soon?” She realized it was probably a cockamamie hope, but already she was aching for the familiar gray light and damp wood smell that pervaded her home. 

“I’m really, truly sorry about all of this Ines. I am. I can’t take you home, as much as I want to- I’m under direct orders.” He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, and lightly squeezed. “Agent Stanley and Agent Meyers were sent over here from BHI headquarters to finish what we started yesterday,” Alfred’s tone took on a more serious note than it had before, “But if you don’t want to talk to them at any point I’ll send them away, fair deal?” Whatever answer she gave him, he was prepared to face the consequences. 

She inhaled softly, holding the breath for a moment as she considered what she wanted to do. As it was, she still had myriad reservations about her current position in the world and hell, that probably wouldn’t change for a very long time, but they were eased somewhat by the fact that these people- whoever they were- didn’t seem to actually have any truly ill intent towards her. Exhaling in a short huff, she shrugged Alfred’s hand off her shoulder and looked him dead-on for the first time since she’d met him. He had a very kind face. “I’ll um, I’ll talk to them. Yesterday was just a little bit frightening, is all.” The coiling tightness in her shoulders loosened at his sage nod, and she was glad that his actions so far had matched his words. 

“Okay, if you’re absolutely certain you wanna do this I’ll go let them know.” Alfred paused, eyebrows raised and a thumbs-up forming that was quickly reciprocated by another that formed on Ines’s own bronze-colored hand. “Alright, good deal! I’ll be back in a few!” He turned out the door and pulled it shut, pausing for the span of a heartbeat before he resumed his descent. 

Ines waited until she could hear the faint murmurs of speech filtering through the walls before she started poking around the room she was in. She peeled back bedsheets and curtains, opened drawers, peered into the closet, and looked at all the spines of the books in the bookshelf, barely able to contain herself. It was all so interesting. 

Downstairs, Alfred was impressing upon his guests the need for tactful behavior. “Listen, she said she’d come down and work with you- which is more than you deserve, to be honest- so be respectful and kind and all that, okay?” Blue eyes narrowed at all four faces. “You pull any kind of dumb shit Ines doesn’t like, Powers That Be be damned I’m booting your asses out.” He let his expression relax after their quick nods, the usual friendly smile worming its way back onto his face. “Great, glad we could come to an understanding!” If a little intimidation was necessary to get a job done, what of it? A healthy fear of something was good, after all. “I’m gonna go get Ines now, she can eat breakfast while I introduce you guys.” They all nodded again and he shot them finger guns, turning to go back upstairs for the second time in less than an hour. He bounded up the stairs, not pausing this time before opening the door and walking in. “Ines are you- what are you doing?” Alfred stopped mid-step, a confused half-frown and raised brow greeting Ines’ face as she popped up from under the guest bed. 

She shot him a stiff, toothy smile, eyelids scrunching up to accentuate the look.

“Are you um, doing alright down there? Do I need to send them packing or-” Alfred was interrupted by a rapid-fire burst of forced giggles that sounded like Ines just repeating the word ‘ha’ extremely fast and obnoxiously loudly. 

She smoothed her hands over the pale yellow of the blanket covering the bed, patting it lightly before standing and sending the same toothy grin Alfred’s way again. “N-no, everything’s fine here!” She waved her hands in front of her at Alfred’s unconvinced expression. “I- I promise! Let’s uh, let’s just go get that stuff done, how ‘bout that?” Ines eased up on the squinting she was doing, berating herself for not listening better for Alfred’s approach- oh god. She looked like a fool. She knew that there wasn’t anything under any of the furniture in that room now, though.

Alfred shrugged, stepping to the side of the bedroom door to allow Ines out of the room first. Leading her down the stairs and towards the kitchen table, he pointed to the chair closest to the window as he began to rummage through the refrigerator for the leftover WacRonalds. Sticking his head out from behind the door, he was met with the sight of Ines avoiding Amelie’s silent staring while the other two agents in the room pretended like nothing was happening. Alfred cleared his throat and shut the refrigerator door, hand seeking out the milkshake in the freezer as he glanced pointedly from Amelie, to Ines, and back to Amelie. They made no move, and he suppressed a groan of annoyance. “Ines, this is Agent Stanford from yesterday,” he bumped the freezer closed, “She’s here with Agents Brinks, Liston, and- wait, where’s Bairnes?” His question was met with pressed lips and a prolonged silence.

“She went to the bathroom,” Agent Brinks finally blurted, hands clasped tightly in front of her, “She saw one off of the main entrance! She should be back soon-”

“Oh crap, was I not fast enough?” 

A new woman walked in, tall and lean and snickering at some joke Ines knew she must’ve missed. The entire atmosphere dissolved into outrage faster than she could keep up with it, two affronted gasps, a bark of laughter, and a groan all sounding out at the same time. 

“KT, really?” Agent Brinks bit out. 

“What? I was just trying to relieve the pressure!” KT snickered again as Agent Brinks slapped her arm, playfully swatting back at the other brunette while she continued to laugh. “Come on guys, those were good puns!” Her head swiveled from face to face, the woman amusedly ignoring the chorus of dissent her statement was met with. KT’s eyes finally settled on Ines, who shot her a shy wave from where she sat. Walking around Amelie to go up to her, she gawked when Ines stood to meet her, eyes flitting over all of Ines’ very obvious musculature. "Holy shit, do you eat weights or something?" She wasn’t even bothered when Agent Brinks slapped the back of her head in disbelief.

“KT oh my gosh! You don’t just say that!”

“I’m sorry! She’s toned!” She laughed to try and draw attention away from her outburst, hands moving in apologetic gestures. “I really am sorry about saying that Ines, you look really cool! Like some kind of badass superhero!” KT shook Ines’ hand earnestly, her excited demeanor translating easily into her body language as she pumped the other woman’s arm vigorously. 

What in the Sam Hill was a superhero? She turned to look at Alfred in a mixture of worry and confusion, her hesitance met with what she had quickly identified as his only real method of dealing with things- he smiled at her again, mouthing that it was okay, and that KT really was harmless. He seemed to deliberate for a moment, then started walking towards her and KT, the bag in his hand being half-crushed by his tightening fist. 

“Okay, I think that’ll do Agent Bairnes,” Alfred interjected, using the food in his hands as an excuse to get between her and Ines, addressing the latter more directly once he had. “I got this for you last night Ines, it’s definitely better fresh but what can you do, am I right?” Placing the thawing milkshake to her right side, Alfred reached a hand into the bright paper bag, now speckled with patches of grease, fumbling blindly for a few moments before he found the disposable boxes that held the burger and fries. “You get started eating this, and I’ll worry about introductions, alright?” He chuckled as Ines shot him another thumbs-up, and, deciding to keep it going, he reciprocated. 

Tuning Alfred out for a moment as he turned to the others, Ines picked up the….whatever-it-was-called sandwich first. It looked pretty good, with the generous amounts of beef, lettuce, cheese, and tomatoes. Even the bread seemed to be designed to be unnaturally appealing, a color she’d only seen baked goods take on in engravings winking up at her from the patch of natural light it had taken up residence in. She couldn’t really smell it, but her mouth began to water nonetheless- this had to be better than squirrel, right? Taking an experimental bite, she instantly choked, the side of her fist going to beat on her sternum as she spit the mouthful of foul flavor and suspect texture across the kitchen, where it landed on one of the laminate boards and sat there limply, still sizzling from the temperature of her mouth. Not better than squirrel. “Oh god if that don’t make me do the quick-step I’ll be blessed…” Ines coughed dryly, hand curling around the cup of- oh god what was in the cup? Whatever it was, she quickly decided that it had to be better than that sandwich and took a large sip, swishing it around her mouth like she used to do with bourbon and swallowing. To her utter relief, the horrid flavor was completely masked by the sheer amount of sweetness in the drink, and it didn’t come back after she swallowed the glug she’d taken. 

“Gross, Ines! Are you okay?” Alfred grabbed a napkin from the middle of the table and swooped down to pick up the food from where it had landed, a disgusted shiver wracking through him at the half-chewed feeling that transcended even the barrier of the napkin. “Did you hear a word I said?” He popped the lid of the garbage can up, eyes trained on Ines as she took another sip of the milkshake and finally stopped frowning quite so much. 

“I’m- I’m fine,” she said, nudging the box with the burger away from her with her finger, “It’s just that- that thing right there’s gotta be the most nasty thing I ever took a bite out of!” Ines looked at Alfred with a mixture of remorse and an almost comical level of betrayal in her eyes, lips parting occasionally to take another sip of the drink she was holding as the blond man stared back at her in disbelief. “Sorry, I’ll uh- I’ll actually listen this time.” Alfred sighed in exasperation, and she flinched a little. Social situations continued to be a thorn in her side, but she suppressed the urge to just have Alfred send the others home so she could hide. 

“Okay, just- okay.” He was dumbfounded- Ines had been a recluse, yes, but to think that she was this much of a mess was simply astounding. It was good that she was trying to stay true to her word and attempt to get the paperwork done with the Agents, though. He appreciated that much, at least. He deliberated for a moment, then picked up the burger and took a bite out of it. It was warm, like it had just come out of the microwave. “Charles, you go first I guess. She needs to do that paperwork, right?” Alfred slid out of the way easily as Charles shot him a testy look at his refusal to address him as Agent Liston, something he found himself stifling laughter at despite the atmosphere. It never really got old.

Charles sat down at the table with a huff, rolling his eyes before setting his briefcase in front of him so that he could get the correct papers and a pen out. Once he had, he slid the first page over to rest directly in front of Ines, a cheap black ballpoint following shortly after. “The original copies I had made of these files yesterday were deemed unfit for submission because they were bent in the process of of completion,” one of his fingers tapped the table as if to emphasize his unspoken annoyance, the man himself sighing again before continuing. “Please read each line carefully and respond appropriately to what it asks you. Any questions?” Ines shook her head and he pursed his lips, watching her read through the page at a pace he only dreamed of. Charles watched her pick up the pen and uncap it after a few seconds, eyes widening slightly in confusion and then suspicion as she went through and placed a neat little ‘x’ at the beginning of each line and then recapped the pen, looking to him with a tight smile on her face. His eyes narrowed dangerously- she was trying to hide something, and it was glaringly obvious what it was. 

Ines could write, yes. Practicing letters had been one of her favorite pastimes aboard long sailing trips aside from tying knots and sketching, but ceaselessly tracing and copying letters didn’t actually lend her any idea as to how they sounded individually or how she was supposed to spell the words she heard when she and others spoke. Knowledge of what those words meant came very easily to her, but there was still the matter of being unable to translate her thoughts into a nonverbal form, and the fact that when she had offered her opinion, no one had taken it seriously. Eventually she had grown so disheartened that she gave up trying to convince people otherwise and spoke how they expected her to speak. Behaving like the village idiot was an act that came worryingly easily, but Charles did not seem to be fooled in the slightest by it. 

“You don’t know how to read, do you? You write well enough, but you can’t read.” How in the world had she honestly expected to fool anyone into thinking that she was fully literate when she had proceeded as she did? 

Her shoulders drooped. “No, I can’t. Never- never got the chance to learn.” She fiddled with the pen, avoiding the eyes of everyone in the room because she didn’t want to have to look up and see pity in their eyes- she hated that. Hated when people assumed that she was stupid because of it. Not that she could really complain, seeing as she encouraged that sort of view in regards to herself. 

“Do you want to learn?” 

Ines looked up at Charles, who had both coppery eyebrows raised at her. There were no traces of pity or derision or anything else of that nature in his eyes, only a genuine curiosity. She beamed at him, nodding, as a tiny flicker of something deeply fraternal bloomed in her chest. He was a pretty slick fellow under all those mysterious airs he waved around like trophies. 

“Here,” Charles pulled out a blank sheet of college-ruled paper, “Write the alphabet on this, and then I’ll help you string some words together.” He slid the paper towards her, face expectant. 

Now that was something she could do. Her primary letter-learning resource had been what she’d been told was a children’s reader, which she’d gotten ahold of sometime in the seventeen-twenties. Pressing the pen to the paper, her arm shifted to allow her braid to fall over her shoulder before a hand found itself at the side of the page, bearing down gently to steady it. When Ines began the first stroke for the triangular letter that started the chain of twenty-seven characters, she noticed that the ink didn’t spread easily, and instead seemed to prefer the tight lines that the pen itself had originally traced them in. She didn’t like it, but she couldn’t complain, either- being ungrateful was not really in her best interest nor her best nature. That, and there was within her no small urge to try and impress Charles, which she had chosen to indulge. Impression was how one made friends, at least from what she could gather.

“You done?” 

Ines tamped down her annoyance at Charles’ brusqueness. This was going to be a work in progress. She started the last movement, ending her efforts with a flourish before looking up at the redhead’s freckled visage again and nodding in the affirmative. Another mouthful of the sweet drink made its way to her lips and she hesitated swallowing this time, letting it shift around her tongue and between her teeth while Charles reorganized the papers into the formation he felt most comfortable with. 

“Good. Repeat after me, if you would-- ‘A’,” he pointed to the first letter, “As in apple and, alternately, ape.” Charles paused, expecting some sort of chuckle at his alliterative language, but found himself unrewarded as Ines merely nodded, repeating the name of the letter and its sounds to herself. He sighed, lips quirking up fleetingly in equal parts exasperation and concession. She could be a worse student. The rest of the alphabet went fairly quickly, Ines only interrupting him here and there with questions about duplicate letters, about which he had to stifle some particularly long-winded (and a bit vitriolic, if he were to be honest) rants about how the English lettering system could be corrected, and his own question about her inclusion of the ampersand as a letter (it still had been when she’d learned to write). “Okay, good. Now that you’ve gotten the alphabet down, let’s start on the paperwork.” Ines hummed in agreement with him, pen poised to start writing. “What’s your full name?” The first of many questions-- Charles settled in for the long haul. 

“Ines Lécuyer.” Ines contented herself uneasily to the lie. Names held power, and she was deeply uncomfortable with sharing hers to begin with. The disconcertion she’d felt when Cassidy had known her name without being told started seeping back to the front of her mind, but she did her best to ignore it. What she could comfortably put of her best foot forward, she would- these people were owed that for trusting her, at least. 

“Date of birth?” 

“I- I uh…” What the hell was she supposed to say? She didn’t really remember anything past waking up on the banks of the Mississippi river, covered in mud and sand and shivering in the biting winds that were ripping their way inland from across the delta. She could still smell the brine of the surf, feel the wind running along the sand and salt that had crusted itself to her skin and the wet silk of the mud oozing between her toes as she paced, hear the distant roar of the river as it mixed with the ocean, beating against the rocks with a fury she’d never seen matched- Ines could remember that. There had been language when she was born, and emotion and expression, but not morals, not religion, not time. She didn’t remember- no. She didn’t know, how could she? What was she supposed to say? “I uh, I don’t know exactly.” That was something. A truth for a (half) lie. 

Charles had a feeling that Ines didn’t know a lot of things about herself.

KT shared a furtive glance with Amelie, both women looking back towards where Agent Brinks and Alfred were standing. The pair were awkwardly spaced, conversation coming in short bursts and then fading away in stiff bouts of aimless chuckling. 

“What are they,” KT whispered, “Like twelve?” Amie gave a quiet snort, head nodding slightly in agreement. KT inclined her head towards her shorter friend’s.

“Five bucks she does the shoulder slap.”

“You’re on- she’s gonna do the pose.” KT waggled her eyebrows at Amelie, who shot her a look that could only be called calculating in return. Across the room, Agent Brinks laughed a bit too loudly and smacked Alfred’s shoulder a few times. KT clicked her tongue against her teeth in annoyance. “Drat.” She fished the appropriate bill out of her pocket and offered it to Amelie, who plucked it from between her outstretched fingers. 

“Did you just say drat?” Amelie’s brow quirked, a small, victorious purse of her lips accentuating the jovial gleam that had taken up residence in her eyes. 

“No. No I didn’t,” KT huffed, “And furthermore-”

“Paperwork’s done.” Charles' even tone cut through the living room, his face unapologetic for having interrupted the two conversations that had been underway. “Which means it’s Agent Stanford’s turn.” He cast a flippant scowl in Alfred’s direction, turning towards the sofa and primly folding himself down to sit, a book and thermos appearing from the depths of the bag he’d left sitting there. 

Amelie shrugged, bending down to pick up her backpack. She took a deep breath and leant slightly into the hand KT put at her elbow before correcting her posture and walking into the kitchen. “Hi-”

“I- I’m real sorry.” 

Amelie paused at Ines’s outburst, fingers loosening around the strap of the backpack enough that it was in danger of falling to the floor again. “For what?” She shivered slightly- the atmosphere was so heavy she could practically feel it weighing down on her skin. 

“For hollering at you and calling you a harlot. Even if I was scared, it wasn’t right of me. I’m sorry.” 

The blond let out the breath everyone was holding, hand retightening as the tense mood burst. She nodded at Ines, smiling a bit more genuinely than she had been before. “Thank you- I accept your apology.” Amelie settled into the chair directly to Ines’s left and set the backpack on the worn tabletop, hand resting on top of it as she turned her head to look at Ines, who pressed her lips into a tight smile. The movement of Ines’s jaw as it clenched drew Amelie’s attention to a long scar that ran the length of the taller woman’s face from the right edge of her forehead to the middle of the left side of her jaw. It was hardly noticeable, but once she had it was hard to look away, blue eyes tracing along other scars she’d mistaken for wrinkles and laugh lines, and then actual laugh lines and up the bridge of Ines’s nose to meet her eyes. They were a soothing, homey shade of black, the same color as the soil she and her grandparents used to garden with when she was much younger. Amelie blinked, breaking whatever spell she’d been under and returned Ines’s smile, pulling the highest-grade of the three cellphones she’d brought with her out of her bag along with the proper tools and extraneous materials she’d need to fully activate it. “Call me Amelie. Let’s get you set up, yeah?” She’d have to call her grandparents later- she missed them a lot more than she thought she did. 

Ines nodded at Amelie, eyes widening in curiosity at the sleek, glassy looking rectangle that the paler woman’s slender, elegant fingers pulled from a crisp white box. “What’s that?” She pointed vaguely, which lent nothing to Agent Stanford about what she meant. 

“What’s what?” Amelie looked back to Ines, amusement blooming at her childish expression of wonder. 

“Any of it! All of it,” Ines barked excitedly, “Everything! Please tell me everything.” She leant in closely towards Amelie’s face, a hand gripping the edge of the table so hard the wood groaned under the force. Gasping suddenly, a wide grin split her face and she stood up fully, torso bent at a ninety-degree angle as she leaned even closer to the blonde, her weight supported on her outstretched hands.

Amelie did not like that gleam in Ines’s eyes, not one single solitary bit. Looks like that only happened when something bad was about to occur to some form of electronic. She pressed the phone closer to her on instinct, body curling around it slightly in suspicion. 

“Can I take it apart?” 

If it were possible to articulate the sheer horror that Amelie greeted that inquiry with she would have, but she couldn’t, so she settled for the strangled yelp that escaped instead. “No,” her thumb ran across the plastic film that was covering the phone protectively, “It’s really delicate.” Amelie’s eyes narrowed as Ines pouted momentarily before flopping back down to sit in her chair again, mood bouncing back almost instantly from its downturn. 

“Can I still take a gander at it?” 

“Well yeah,” Amelie nodded, “Technically you own this. Sorta.” Peeling the film off of the phone, she reached for the SIM card and the small pin tool she needed to open the slot that she could insert the card into it. “You can customize it how you want- personalize it, what have you.” Her hands flew along the phone’s buttons with a practiced ease, pin tool closing the slot over the card and then her index finger depressing the power button until the screen lit up. “IT actually issued you a really good model, this is the latest Yphone.” The device prompted her for a wifi network, and she huffed in slight annoyance. “What’s your wifi, Jones?” She twisted around in the chair, an exasperated set to her mouth. 

Alfred didn’t miss a beat, turning from where he and Agent Brinks had restarted their conversation. “Buns of Liberty. Password is Fam Addams except the ‘a’s are the number four, the ‘m’s are two karats right next to each other and the ‘s’ is a five.” He finger-gunned at Amelie’s incredulous look, laughing harder at his joke than he already was when he heard Agent Brinks join in. 

Amelie rolled her eyes and righted herself. What a ham. “Anyway, once I get logged into Liberty Man’s wifi, you’ll be able to set up your phone how you want. I’ll be here if something isn’t clear or you need help reading it, okay?” She passed the device to Ines, who took it from her like she was handling stemware. Amelie watched out of the corner of her eye as Ines pressed her finger to the screen and swiped experimentally, face lighting up when the phone responded. Amelie chuckled, then started rooting around in her bag for one of the standard-issue cases she’d brought with her so that she could put it on the phone once Ines was done setting up. 

Ines took a huge swig of the melting drink that sat sweating next to her, the palm that had grabbed the cup sliding rapidly against the fabric of her overalls so that it would dry more quickly and she could get back to fiddling with this ‘Yphone’ thing. She was only on the second...page? Window? Nevertheless, she was confused. “Amelie? I uh, I got a question for you.” Amelie held up her finger, pulling another plastic package out of her bag before turning to face Ines.

“Okay, what’s the matter?” 

“What’s the little window I’m tapping on here called?” Ines turned the phone so that the front was facing Amie, who had furrowed her brows in confusion. 

“Oh! You mean the screen,” Amelie said, “They’re called screens, whether they’re on TVs, e-readers or what have you.” The pads of her fingers ran along the tough rubber of the phone case, the texture of it against her skin soothing. 

“I uh, I appreciate you. Thank you kindly.” Ines went back to work, quickly moving through the rest of customization and setting a ‘default lock and home wallpaper’, and what the name of the Yphone would be. Black eyes rolled around the kitchen and what she could see of the living room, making sure no one was looking when she named the little device, fingers stumbling along the keys in a singularly unpracticed fashion as she entered the password she wanted to use as well. It was dumb and sentimental but she couldn’t dissuade herself from doing it. 

“You good, Ines?” 

Ines huffed a sigh in response, voice a bit melancholic when she spoke. “I- yes. I’m uh, I’m fine. What’s a TV? And an e-reader?” The excitement that she’d been feeling was now muted, teeth worrying the skin on her lower lip as she wondered why she always did this to herself. Her mood wouldn’t get any better from here, it never did. 

“Are you sure?” 

Amelie’s tone was serious, forcing Ines to genuinely look at her this time. Amelie gazed back, unwavering. Expectant. Ines looked away. “I’m- I’ll be alright. I uh, I promise. Let’s just uh, let’s talk about something else.” She smiled at the blond next to her, watching in slight guilt as Amelie’s face cracked into something more gentle and unsure than it had been before. 

“I- alright. I won’t press you.” Amelie blinked slowly once, and then twice as she gathered her thoughts. “Let me teach you how to use your cellphone, for starters.” She took it from Ines when the mestiza handed it over, angling her body so that Ines could see where all the buttons were when she explained what they did. “This is the power button,” she clicked it, “And you can use it to turn the phone on, shut it down, or put it into something called sleep mode, which is what I just did.” She pressed the square home button, humming in approval when it lit up immediately. “This is the home button. You press this when the phone is in sleep mode to wake it up so you can enter your password and fully wake the device up-- it’ll just re-enter sleep mode if you don’t.” Amelie let Ines enter her password again and then clicked the button to turn the volume up. “These buttons on the side change the volume-- how loud the music or noise will be if you play something or click a button-- which leads me to the option to put your phone on vibrate.” She turned the phone on its side, clicking the switch down and pointing to the little red line that had been revealed and then clicking it back upwards. “If your phone is unlocked, you can press the home button three times and it’ll show all the windows you have open, and you have to do this to close apps so your battery doesn’t die as quickly.” Ines nodded quickly and waved for her to continue, face no less interested than it had been before her mood had lowered. “That’s really it besides swiping on the home screen,” Amelie shrugged, “Do you mind if I give you my number?” She tilted her head, waiting as Ines processed the question. 

“I suppose so, if you’d be as kind as to tell me what it’s used for.” Ines smiled, a small laugh leaving her. It was too easy to relax around these people, and she almost hated them for it. “And if you could uh, tell me what an ‘app’ is and what to do when that thing dies? Will I need to get a new one?” Dying never sounded like a good thing unless it was someone who had proved beyond a shadow of a doubt they deserved it, in Ines’s opinion. She’d only met a few people like that in her life-- faster and stronger she may have been, but they terrified her. 

“Oh! My bad” Amelie’s hand fluttered from side to side in embarrassment, “See, your cell number is how you place calls with or text a specific person!” She pulled up the messages function, entering her number and then texting herself ‘hi’. Her phone buzzed against the fabric of her work skirt a couple seconds later and she pulled it out for Ines to see, nodding at the gasp of shock it elicited. “Way better than telegraphs, right? Anyway, did you see the little square icon I tapped on to pull this up?” Ines shifted her chair closer to Amelie’s, making a small grunt of agreement to indicate that she had. “Well that’s an app. It’s short for ‘application’, but basically it’s just a bunch of code designed to serve a specific function, like this one is designed to let you contact me via what’s called a text messaging system. I’m not going to go into what code is right now because we don’t have that kind of time, unfortunately.” Amelie closed the window, finger lingering just under the little charge icon so that Ines could easily pick it out. “This little thing indicates your battery life. Don’t worry about your phone being legitimately dead, it just means that your battery has no more power left and that you need to charge it.” Getting the charger, she stood momentarily, demonstrating how to plug the triangular adapter into a wall socket and how to attach the actual charging cable to the adapter and then insert the cable into the phone. Unplugging it, she retook her seat after making sure that this wasn’t too much information all at once for Ines. “Okay. In the middle of the bar at the top of the screen is your current time, and it’ll even switch itself over to daylight savings time or whatever time is correct for the geographic area you’re in, like if you go from Alabama to Florida for instance.” Amelie took a breath, swallowing the saliva that had gathered in her mouth from all the talking she wasn’t used to doing. “Next is the little ripple looking icon, which is your wifi signal’s strength, not that it should really matter seeing as you’ve got unlimited data.” Finally her nail moved to hover by the carrier name, the artificial light from the screen making the keratin look slightly see-through. “This is your carrier, or the company that makes sure you can make calls and text all you want. You have ZH&H, which is okay for the area we’re in, but beggars can’t be choosers can they?” Amelie pursed her lips slightly, a bitter look shot at the little collection of letters. “Do you have any more questions before I let Agents Brinks and Bairnes take over?” Ines scooted back to her original position and shook her head no, a muttered but genuine thanks sent Amelie’s way as she took the phone (now in its case) back and locked it, standing to plug in back into its charger while Amelie went to get the other two women. 

Ines twiddled her fingers, the pad of her thumb running along one of the many scars that were etched into the flesh of her hands, and she chewed the inside of her cheek as she contemplated how she’d gotten to this point in so short a span. Time moved differently in the bayou, where it had seemed both like an eternity and the blink of an eye, the same, safe repetition bleeding the days together comfortably. Every day had been like the one before it and with little variance, which was both a blessing and a curse, because it had caused her to forget just how quickly things could happen and events progress. 

Claire giggled at the latest of many terrible jokes Alfred had made, eyes drawn away from the faint outlines his muscles made through the cotton of his shirt by Amelie, her shorter friend jerking her chin in the direction of the kitchen doorway where KT was waiting for her. “Whoops, gotta go for a second Mr. Jones-”

“I- I um,” Alfred grabbed her shoulder a bit jerkily, “Call me Alfred.” She nodded at him, looking a little shocked before resuming her stride. He curled up on the inside, dying a little as he berated himself for just how damn awkward he was. 

Claire was screaming. Not externally, of course-- that would be loud. But internally- oh mama, she was having a field day! A wild grin tore across her face at KT stage wink and gentle shoulder nudges, and she took a moment to try and regain some semblance of professionalism before she went in to debrief Ines about what she’d missed in the last century and a half. She almost couldn’t do it. Almost. 

“Got your USBs, lovebird?” 

Claire rolled her eyes at KT, elbow digging into the taller brunette’s upper arm through the cable knit of the green fabric that covered the skin there. “Yeah, you ready to kill it in there?” She felt KT's sweater brush against her sleeve as she shrugged.

“I guess. We do have PhDs after all-- how hard could it be?”

Very hard, as it turned out. After their introductions (they insisted Ines address them by first name) and as soon as they launched into their joint spiel about the rough timeline they’d constructed late the night previous Ines was asking questions left and right, hardly letting them get a word in edgeways about the actual topic of their debriefing. 

“So wait, you mean to tell me there was a molasses flood?” Ines crossed her arms, eyes narrowing speculatively. “I’m sorry y’all but I’m inclined to believe that you’re all hat and no cattle on this one.” Ines’s eyebrows raised when Claire’s index finger jammed its way towards her nose and stopped just centimeters from the tip of it, her pale face lighting up with satisfaction. 

“Ah ha! That’s where you’re wrong! I can pull up at least eight different civilian sources that include photographs of the event and a-- frankly, dramatized-- videographic retelling of the details surrounding the disaster!” Claire’s hand whipped out of her pocket with her phone in its grasp, her thumb clicking the home button and rapidly entering the password while Ines shifted closer to better see what she was pulling up. 

KT wondered how they’d gotten from military states being instituted in the post-war south to the Great Molasses Disaster of Boston fame, honestly she did. Which was not to say that it wasn’t hugely entertaining to watch Claire go off on yet another tangent in order to convince Ines of the veracity of her statements. “Agent Brinks, focus. As cool as it is that Ines is asking lots of stuff, she’ll get overloaded if we give her too much information at one time.” Claire pouted a bit but got back on track, very obviously dissatisfied with the vagueness of what she was allowed to expand upon. 

“Anyway, eventually by like the eighteen-nineties the United States government just decided to completely retract their military occupation of the South since reconstruction was such a failure.” Claire gave an easy shrug like it didn’t burn her up that she and KT had to cut out all the juicy bits for the sake of time. 

Chestnut locks of hair flounced slightly as KT’s eyes found themselves on the microwave’s clock, widening when she read the time. They had to put this on blast if they wanted to get to the night shift on time. “Claire- I mean, Agent Brinks- we gotta cut this short, our shifts start in three hours.” Claire groaned in what sounded like pain and KT had to give her that one. The night shift was deadly at the BHI.

“Okay. I know this is why we made the USBs, but still.” Claire tossed said devices onto the table next to KT’s, nails drumming frustratedly into the tabletop for a few repetitions. “It’s the principle of the thing.” She reached for her backpack absentmindedly, confusion turning into epiphany as soon as she recalled that it was at her house since all she’d needed today were the USBs. The gallon jug of tea in the back of her refrigerator’s top shelf was calling her name something fierce. “We’ll get Alfred to show you how to use the USBs and a laptop so you can go through the files at your own pace. Can we give you our numbers?” Claire grabbed Ines’s phone only after she’d nodded her consent, blue-gray eyes straying along the beginnings of what looked like scars than ran from the tops of Ines’s knuckles all the way down her wrist until they disappeared abruptly under the sleeve of her shirt.

Ines snatched her arm away from Claire’s gaze, ears burning as she pulled her shirtsleeve as far down as it would go. A cold spike of humiliation speared through her, her insides shriveling at the thought of what Claire would think. She hated her scars, hated them-- that was why she went to such lengths to cover what she could of them. They drew too much attention and were painful, both in the sense of looking at them and in that they liked to reopen and bleed heavily if she moved the wrong way. Which was to say, they tore open if she did any sort of mildly intense activity at all ever, something she did all the time. Her back ached.

“Uh, here you go Ines,” KT passed the phone back, voice ripping through the tense silence that had been produced. “I went ahead and put Charles’ number in there too, if that’s okay?” Black eyes avoided her own as Ines nodded, a quiet affirmation rumbling towards Claire and her from where Ines sat, slightly caved in on herself. “Okay…. It was nice to finally meet you?” KT’s statement trailed off into the interrogative, her smile unsure as she and Claire stood and exited the kitchen to go and tell the others that it was time to leave. They gathered in a close circle in the entranceway, low questions flying through the air as to why Claire and she looked so unsettled. 

“Is Ines okay?” Alfred whispered. “What happened in there?” His hands flexed, quickly extending and retracting his fingers. 

“We...really don’t know,” Claire began, looking to KT and then back to Alfred, “I took her phone from her to add myself as a contact and she just snatched her hand away?” She shrugged at the man opposite her, gesticulations becoming progressively more emphatic as she spoke. “It was sort’ve like she just curled in on herself? We didn’t mean to do anything like that.” Her foot took to tapping on the hardwood as she lapsed into an uneasy quiet, the others unwilling to break it. 

“You should probably go.” Unlocking the front door, Alfred’s brows furrowed apologetically as he ushered them out. He’d really been hoping that things would continue going as well as they had been. Closing the door he locked it again, deadbolt settling into place with a solid thunk. He hesitated, hand on the doorknob as he listened to them drive away, thoughts scattering and then coalescing back onto the most pressing matter-- checking on Ines. “Hey, Ines,” Alfred called, walking to the kitchen and peeking in at her, “What do you want for lunch?” She shrugged at him, head finally turning towards him when he gave a short growl of frustration. “Okay, so that just means I get to pick. How do you feel about chinese?” He grabbed the menu from beside the landline, waving it teasingly at her.

“I- I don’t know Mr. Jones, I ain’t never had it before.” 

Alfred hated it when people called him ‘Mr. Jones’-- it made him feel physically older and it was just disgusting in his opinion. “Call me Alfred, Ines. This whole situation we’re in is a two-way street.” He waited for her nod, then continued. “Now I’m feeling like some orange chicken, I don’t know about you. You wanna take a look?” Sandy brows raised, the wrinkled, worn menu being placed in front of Ines so that she could look at it while he talked. “They told me that they left you some USBs so you could start learning about what you missed,” a finger nudged at one of the eight plastic rectangles that sat in the middle of the table, “Do you want to look at them while we eat?” Ines just stared at him for a few seconds and then looked back down at the menu. God they were bad at this, weren’t they? “Or, uh, you know while you eat, if you want to be alone right now that is.” The home phone was smooth against his palm as his fiddled with it, Ines shrugging yet again. 

“I’ll eat what you’re getting Mr.- I mean uh, I’ll um, I’ll get what you’re gonna get, Alfred.” 

He dialed the number to the diner, swiping the menu from Ines even though he’d had it memorized since the mid-eighties. He watched her worry the cuffs of her shirt as he ordered, long, bronzed fingers pulling at a loose thread anxiously. He hung up once he was done, a heavy pause between them. “So… Are you gonna look at the files, or…?” She looked back up at him, jaw clenching and unclenching slowly so that it looked like she was actually chewing over her thoughts.

Ines was at a crossroads and, esoterically speaking, that was typically a bad place to be. Two options presented themselves as Alfred stared at her-- end her exploration of the modern world and avoid it as much as she could, or continue. Whatever she chose there was no going back from it, but that wasn’t what was making her so uncomfortable. She was used to finality, but it was also a certainty that if she continued on, eventually she would have to open up to these people who had put themselves into her life and that was terrifying. Even now she could feel the familiar pull of the tides and the absence of her bayou. Her home was calling to her. “Yeah, I’ll uh- I’ll look at them once I get some food in me.” Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes but she blinked them away before she could start crying, before she could feel more betrayed by herself than she already did.


	4. Close Encounters of the First Kind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm making an official note to say that ASC is being permanently discontinued. Thanks be to all of you who read these four chapters and left kudos, I really appreciate you taking the time to acknowledge the work I put into this.

Chapter 4: Close Encounters of the First Kind

/\~/\~/\~/\~/\~/\

A week later, Ines still found herself only a third of the way through the little pile of information that Agents Brinks and Bairnes had given her. There was a staccato clicking as she depressed the left button of her mouse, the only other sound besides her quiet whispers as she read aloud to herself and the soft clicking of a plastic fork as it speared the last cold chunk of orange chicken. A black brow rose as she watched one of the tiny animal figurines that decorated her nightstand move a few centimeters, freezing suddenly when she coughed to get its attention. “Ask next time.” It wobbled, head bobbing forward in imitation of a nod. Ines chuckled lowly, eye straying to the semi-transparent head of mousy brown hair that was half-hidden by the corner of the nightstand. Sighing, she turned her attention back to the dull glow of her laptop’s screen and refocused on the little words that had taken up residence there. Well, she tried to focus. It was becoming increasingly harder to actually comprehend what she was attempting to read, the tiny numbers in the bottom right of the screen reading well past three in the morning. Her laptop clicked shut, and her toes curled against the sheets as she leant forward to set the empty takeout container on the edge of her desk along with the laptop. Flopping onto her back she stifled a yawn, wiggling into a more comfortable position and pulling the heavy yellow comforter up to her chin. Her eyes slid shut and silence engulfed the room. 

Something rattled, then fell to the floor with a sharp thwack. 

Ines’ eyes snapped open, then narrowed testily as she spotted a book sitting on the floor. Lips pursed, she got up, retrieved the book and slid it back into the empty space on the shelf. Settling back into bed, her face relaxed after a few minutes as she began to doze off. 

Thwack.

She repeated the process of five minutes previous, glaring a bit more icily in the direction of the nightstand. Closing her eyes and evening her breathing, she didn’t fall asleep. It was time to play the waiting game. 

Thwack.

“That’s it, youngin.” Ines whispered, index finger brandished in front of her like a weapon. “I need to sleep, so you just skedaddle for a little while. I’ll be up in a few hours.” The book skidded under the bed as if someone had kicked it. She stood, hands fisting at her hips. “First and foremost I know you know better than that,” her thumb jabbed in the vague direction of the book, “So you’d better stop it right now before I make you.” There was a final, petulant rattle of the figurines before the presence left completely and she felt it reappear on the ground floor. Good. As much as she enjoyed having the little ghost around, he had become very clingy very quickly when he realized that she was the only one who could see and interact with him like a living person. It was what it was, she supposed- regardless it was time to sleep, so she stretched out on the comfortable mattress, completely out before her head even hit the pillow. 

Alfred cracked an eye open, listening in the stillness of the dawn for whatever had woken him to make a sound again. The dull noise of someone stomping up the stairs reached his ears and he sighed, eye sliding closed again. It was just Ines. Both of his eyes flew open as the stomping continued down the hall towards his room. How could it be Ines when Ines didn’t stomp, and didn’t come near his room under any circumstances? His complexion paled considerably as the thought of ghosts sprung to mind, a shiver wracking through his body as he carefully peeled back his sheets and climbed out of bed, making his way stealthily towards the bedroom door. The stomping ceased suddenly and he threw open the door expecting to see an armed intruder, but was only greeted by an empty hallway and no one in sight. The armed intruder would’ve been a hell of a lot better for his nerves. Throwing himself down the hallway, he slammed open Ines’ door and startled her awake. “Ines! Holy fuck-”

“What in the blue hell-”

“There’s no time for that Ines,” Alfred stage-whispered, “We have to leave right now-”

“Alfred, what-”

“Right! Now!” He grabbed for her hand to yank her out of bed, whimpering when she swatted him away.

“What bee is up your bonnet, boy?” 

“I think there’s someone in the house! Someone or...something.” He watched Ines’ expression deadpan at his dramatism, exasperation seeping into her body language.

“You go on and check the ground level, fraidy cat. I’ll be right behind you.” She shook her head at her roommate’s antics. Gone was her impression of him as an austere, powerful being. In its place sat an absurdly powerful toddler prone to little fits of pouting who had to be goaded into professionalism at least half the time. It took more effort to peel herself from the plush mattress than she would’ve liked, a tiny grain of bitterness at her apparent weakness for creature comforts chafing at the back of her mind more than it had a few hours earlier. She elected to ignore it completely and shrugged on her overalls- she knew from experience that sleep wouldn’t be coming back to her for a while, so it was best to just ‘tackle the day’ as Alfred so liked to tell her. 

The stairs were silent as she descended, black eyes narrowing pettily at the hour that the armed security system was currently displaying. Two hours of sleep were better than none, she supposed. “What’s the matter, Al?” Halfway across the ransacked living room the blonde man jumped nearly out of his skin, a choice selection of profanities spewing from between his teeth as he twisted around to glare at her. “Did you find any evidence of a burglar besides all this mess?” There was something about her lack of sleep that made her somewhat braver in mannerism, a bit more brash in speech. 

“Do you have to sneak up on people like that, Ines?” He raised an eyebrow at her particularly unperturbed expression, a short, miffed laugh left him at the way she just kept leaning on the entryway’s door frame, looking bored. “To answer your question Ines, no. There’s no evidence of a break-in.” A suspicious glare settled onto his face as she yawned. “Which leads me to believe that you had something to do with this.” She’d given him no past indication of behavior like this, but the story Cassidy had told him about the shack let him know that Ines was totally capable of throwing things around without meaning to if she got angry enough. “If you’re mad about something, you can tell me. You know that, right?” It was her turn to glare at him, a slightly hurt cast to her features. 

“Ain’t me, Al.” Full lips paused, pursing as if she were stopping to taste the words she was about to utter. “‘S a ghost. I wouldn’t-”

“Stop bullshitting me, Ines. Ghosts aren’t fucking real.” As much as the thought of spectres and hauntings terrified him, he knew it was an irrational fear, and he was furious that Ines was trying to capitalize on that fear to cover up her own mistakes. 

She surprised herself when a harsh bark of laughter escaped her, bouncing around the room obnoxiously as her roommate continued to frown. “Alfred Jones, older you may be, but many things you do not know.” Ironic that the most death-saturated person she’d ever met held such an ardent disbelief in its presence in the plane of the living. Her head tilted curiously to the side as she watched his expression morph quickly from fury to wrath, his next smile icy. 

“Then why don’t you prove it, Ines Lécuyer?” There was a beat of utter silence before the nastiest smirk he’d ever seen on a face slowly tugged at Ines’ lips. Loathe as he was to admit, the look was actually a bit unnerving to him, stomach bottoming out in tense, slightly regretful anticipation. 

“Okay.” 

Some sort of ancient, primordial fear sent alarm bells going off in his mind only seconds before there was an odd warping in the space just around Ines, the natural light of the dawn bending around itself and shining on the murky corruption that was spreading through the room in a flurry of movement that could only be described as other. Masses of greasy-looking, grayish-green tentacles erupted from the blackness, writhing and wrapping around her torso and limbs in an almost caressing, greedy manner. The longer he stared, the more it seemed to move, bubbling at the edges, expanding and contracting as if it were breathing. He looked away from it and back to Ines’ face when he caught the vague outline of a humanoid figure pressing against the very center of the mass, trying to claw its way out. 

The look on Alfred’s face was no less satisfying than she’d imagined it to be. Well, maybe a little. “What’s the matter, Al? Ain’tcha ever seen a ghost before?” There was a sharp tug at her sleeve, her head jerking down uncomfortably to stare into the angered face of her young friend. Guilt speared through her as the nameless boy sent her an objective picture of what she was doing, a particular focus on Alfred’s horrified face really driving the message home. It was about time she stopped being a jackass. “Fix the living room y’all- you can go back to sleep right after.” She stopped a stray ghost before it could run through Al, a flash of anger rippling from her and down its tether and causing it to shy far away from him. 

He stood stock still as the black light parted around him, wrapping around every available surface in the room before retreating back to Ines, leaving his living room looking so clean as to be perfectly untouched. “Ines, what the fuck?” Now that the unease had largely passed, it was replaced with disgust and no small amount of lividity. How dare she use her magic as an excuse to bully him?

“Al, I’m r-really s-”

“Shut the fuck up and listen to me right now.” He stalked forward, footfalls echoing ominously as he towered over her. “Don’t you ever try anything like that again. It was incredibly shitty of you to use your magic to scare me like that, and it was inexcusable behavior.” Tears welled in her eyes as she nodded at him. “The only thing your little display achieved was convincing me that you trashed the living room yourself, but I’m still willing to hear you out- so explain yourself, and you’d better make it damn good.” He expected her to speak, but there was only a furrowing of the bronzed skin of her forehead as she concentrated on something he couldn’t see.

“I- I know I ain’t never asked ya before, but could you tell me your name?” 

The little boy nodded at her, expression softening considerably as he scanned the room for something, eyes lighting up as he spotted the china cabinet. He rushed over, swinging the cabinet door open, grabbing the gravy boat, and throwing it to the floor. 

Ines hissed through her teeth as Alfred’s expression soured further. “B-before you yell, I can promise you that wasn’t me, there’s a little boy ‘round here-”

“Really, Ines? Why should I believe you when it’s a well-known fact that you can use magic?” He snarled.

“B-because, if I’d broken that with magic, it woulda fixed itself. I’ll show you.” Her braid swished around as she beckoned him over to the broken pile of ceramics, pooling on the floor when she squatted down to better reach the debris. Light blue energy crackled to life around her left palm, the gravy boat’s pieces floating a few inches in the air as they whirled around and fit together, leaving it whole after a minute or so. 

“And just what does that prove-” Alfred choked on his words as Ines shoved her hand in his face just in time for her finger to snap backwards at its middle knuckle, nail touching the scar at the base of it on the back of her hand. He could see the jagged edge of the bone poking out of her skin, still covered in muscle and oozing a little marrow. 

“Magic calls for balance- like that Newton guy you showed me said. Equal and opposite reaction, r-right?” She backed up a little, trying to keep blood from getting onto Alfred’s clothes. “S-stuff like I just did is the m-main reason you don’t see mortal magicians anymore- more often than not, they all bit off more than they could chew and died before they could pass on their k-knowledge.” Ines grunted slightly as her finger clicked back into its proper shape and alignment. 

“Then why the ever-loving fuck didn’t you just tell me that in the first place!” He was just incredulous at this point- incredulous that there were ghosts in his house, incredulous that Ines had decided that the best route to explain this was being a total asshole, incredulous and fucking infuriated. 

“I- I didn’t think-”

“No,” a mirthless chuckle left him, “You really didn’t, did you?” He needed to get out of the house, and fast. Before he went ape shit. 

“I’m so sorry Alfred-”

“I don’t want your fucking apology, Ines. Nor do I accept it.” 

Ines decided it would be better if she just stood there as Alfred got dressed and came back down to grab his keys. 

“I’m going to the BHI, and I won’t be back until late. You know how to order food, so just stay out of trouble, okay?” 

The door slammed shut behind him, and she waited till she heard his car pull away before sinking onto the sofa and burying her face into her knees. She’d really fucked things up for herself this time.

/\~/\~/\~/\~/\~/\

Three movies and a book later, Ines was horribly lonely. Though, by her own estimation, it was what she deserved. That didn’t stop her from trying to think of ways to make it up to Alfred, even if there was no real way to accomplish that. It was the thought that counted, right? She’d been thinking for quite a while now, Gravy sitting on the opposite end of the couch, reading a magazine and occasionally sending looks her way. “Gravy, d-do you think he’d like it if I fixed up the back garden?” He smiled at her like it was the first good idea she’d had all day. Maybe it was. She found the TV remote and pressed the power button, stretching as it fully turned off. 

The bricks that made up Alfred’s back steps were old, the cracked mortar holding them together scratching comfortingly at the calloused soles of her feet as she pulled her boots on. The tarred cotton laces were worn smooth by years of wear, little divots in their grayed shell in the places where she tied her usual knot, bent slightly from all the times she’d habitually tucked them into her boots so that they didn’t become caught on anything. She stood up, knocking the back of her heels against the step she was on so that her foot was all the way back on the sole, and then took off across the back yard towards perhaps the rustiest, most derelict toolshed she’d ever had the displeasure of having to crawl inside of. It didn’t take an expert’s eye to tell her that there were more rocks near the surface of the lawn than actual topsoil any more than it took common sense to say that difficulties were to be expected because of this. 

Ines yanked a cobweb-coated spade and a rusty pickaxe from their respective piles, a triumphant grin on her face that crinkled the corners of her eyes happily. Yes, difficulties were to be expected, but that was where assistance and effort helped to pick up the slack. 

/\~/\~/\~/\~/\~/\

Alfred stealthily uncapped the cheap ballpoint that Claire had so carelessly left on her desk. Black ink, rolling tip, point five sizing. He nodded to himself- all good specs for a sneaky scribble attack. His arm began to slowly extend, pen making its way to the direct center of the back of her neck slowly but surely, his victim completely unaware of the horrors he had in store for her. 

“Alfred, as much as I enjoy your company, I’m going to have to ask you to leave if you can’t let me actually do my job.” Claire’s eyebrows shot up in surprise at the blond man’s boisterous laughter. 

“You got me there! I’ll leave you be.” Busted. 

Okay, that was fishy as fuck. “Um, Al? Ignoring what I just said completely, is there something wrong?” There was a pointed silence adding weight to her question, the constant tapping of manicured nails on computer keys having halted in favor of giving Alfred all of her attention. He looked as dodgy as he sounded, eyes avoiding her own while his fingers drummed out an errant beat on the flesh of his arm. 

“Why would anything be wrong,” he rushed out, “Nothing’s the matter, what gave you that impression?” 

Well that was a little hurtful. They hung out so often at work Claire was certain he’d be more open with her about how he was feeling. “Listen…. If you aren’t comfortable telling me about whatever it is, that’s cool- just don’t lie about it, alright?” She turned back to the word document on her computer screen, eyes focusing on her faint reflection rather than the words themselves as quietude settled into the office once more. 

Alfred poked at the waxy leaf of Claire’s aloe plant absentmindedly, pretending he didn’t hear the pain in her voice when she spoke. Life was dumb. Dumb and stupid and treacherous and painful, and he’d be damned if he didn’t make it just this small bit easier for her and even himself. Which was well and good to think, but infinitely harder to put into action. Amazing how present words were until you actually needed to sound particularly articulate. “Claire, Ines and I-” he bit his tongue, residual ire from the morning rising in the back of his throat. “We had a fight.” God that sounded juvenile. “A big one.” He rolled his eyes at his diction. Wasn’t he a shining example of maturity? 

“What about, if you don’t mind me asking?” It was odd to think of them as arguing when they seemed to get along so well. 

He heaved a sigh, an awkward curl to his lips as he decided how to phrase things. She’d probably appreciate it more if he was just direct, and seeing as he was a nearly-immortal, eternally youthful, anthropomorphised representation of a fucking landmass, how much stranger could an argument about ghosts, magic, and interpersonal ethics be? “When I woke up this morning, the living room was a wreck. So of course, Ines is the only other person in the house, right? Obviously, she’s the one to have trashed the room.” Claire nodded at him, swigging back some tea. “Well- and this sounds insane- she didn’t. Some fucking ghosts did.” He didn’t fault her for the shock and disbelief that lined her expression- how could he when he’d reacted exactly the same way? 

“Did….Did she give you some proof?” 

“I’ll say,” he snorted, “That jackass decided that the best way to go about things was scaring the shit outta me.” Chills rippled through him at just the thought of the eerie light and gross protrusions Ines had produced, but even more so at the utterly unapologetic look she’d had while doing it. That was the worst part- she hadn’t looked sorry about doing it until after he’d gotten angry. “I don’t wanna go into too much detail, but she essentially summoned a bunch of ghosts into my fucking living room to clean it, and apparently to be an ass about my fear of them.” He worried the inside of his cheek, biting down on it in surprise when Claire gently placed a hand on his, her eyebrows furrowed in concern. 

“I’m sorry that happened, Al. It wasn’t right of her to scare you like that.” It was her turn to pause and gather her thoughts, and to wonder why in the world the office councilor was the only one to be extensively trained in word choice and interpersonal things. Thank God for her natural skill in that department, or else she would’ve been in a world of hurt on more than one occasion. “However, it begs- are you even sure she intended for that to happen? You said yourself that she summoned the ghosts,” Alfred had gone worryingly thin-lipped, “As flawed as the logic would be, maybe she just assumed that spirits were as natural a thing for others as they are for her-”

“Assumption-”

“Makes an ass out of us all, I know.” Claire soothed. “Let’s just think about this, Alfred. She’s been in a swamp in the middle of nowhere for a century and a half, so the last extensive experience she’s had with modernity would be the era of morphine addiction and large-scale consumption of coal as an energy source.” She nervously knocked back a mouthful of tea from its glass bottle, unable to gauge anything from Alfred’s deadpan expression. Medium-thick eyebrows shifted a bit lower over blue-gray eyes. She’d already started, and as nervous as she was, momma didn’t raise no quitter. “Which means that while Ines knows that science has progressed a metric fuckton, she doesn’t realize just how much belief in the supernatural has diminished. Not to mention, she hasn’t been around other people in quite a while, so given the change in social customs it’s a lot harder for her to tell when she’s acting like a tool.” Claire set her hands back in her lap, fingers playing with little pinches of the fabric of her skirt. “It doesn’t excuse the behavior- it explains it.” His grudging nod of agreement was encouraging, to say the least. As angry about the whole affair as he was, she knew he wasn’t unreasonable.

“You’ve got a point, Claire, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to accept her apology.” 

She nodded. There was precious little else she could do at this point besides let everything play out for itself. Well, she could check on Ines, too. Opening her mouth as she grabbed her phone, she barely got a breath in before snapping it back closed. She didn’t need to ask Alfred for permission to talk to Ines. They were acquaintances (friends, possibly?) in their own right, and that gave her the ability to check up on the mestiza whenever the whimsy struck her. “Hey Al, it’s almost my lunch hour- you wanna eat with the admins today?” Claire snickered at the pensive ‘sure’, her fingernails clicking out a message rapidly across the screen of her cell phone. Managing to hit send and pull on her blazer at the same time was a challenge in and of itself, but it was intensely rewarding when the message notified as read and Ines began typing a response almost instantaneously. 

“What’s on the menu, O Great and Wonderful Claire?” 

Dear jesus, anything he wanted. “How does Pasta Shack sound?” It was almost like a date, and her poor heart couldn’t take much more of this unrequited love nonsense. 

“It sounds amazing.” Alfred prayed to the big man in the sky that Claire didn’t notice just how pointedly he’d said that. The last thing he needed to be doing was creeping her out or something. 

/\~/\~/\~/\~/\~/\

Spades were unwieldy things to work with if you didn’t know what the hell you were doing. They were sharp, heavy, and Alfred’s had the singular honor of being both rusted nearly beyond repair and jaggedly serrated on one side due to some old break. Ines had learned this particular style of tool was one to be respected, but never in her life had she known an example of the species to be quite so out for blood as this one. She struck a large, solidly embedded rock, and the spade took the opportunity to visit revenge on her for all the injustices to spadekind it had ever borne witness to by flying up in such a way that the flat of the blade slapped against her knee with enough force to buckle it. She jammed it into the ground in response, using the handle as a makeshift cane to stand with before grabbing the much more amenable pickaxe. A narrowed eye appraised the slightly-disturbed loam where the rock lay in hiding, the flat end of the pickaxe’s blade poised to strike when her ass buzzed and and made a loud honking noise. 

Ines knew for a fact that glutes simply were not designed to do either of those things, whether the person possessed of them was immortal or not. Therefore, it stood to reason that launching the pickaxe at a tree so hard that it got lodged in the trunk and slamming her hand on the offending noisemaker (her left buttock) in shock was a proper reaction to the situation at hand. Or maybe not, considering that she may have just irrevocably damaged her cell phone after only a week of owning the damn thing. Nearly as quickly as she’d slapped her ass, she slid the phone case from her back pocket with the expectation of a contained mess of shattered glass and wiring. Instead, a perfect screen displaying a notification from Agent Brinks greeted her and she sighed in relief, nearly dropping the phone when it made the obnoxious honking again. The silencing button was her new and very best friend. Her skin flushed a deeper red than it already was when she caught sight of Gravy immobilized in a silent fit of cackling, his little legs kicking in the air and preventing him from noticing that she’d just stuck her tongue out at him. Little shit. Swiping left on the notification, she waited for the messaging app to fully pop up before actually reading what Claire had sent her. 

‘Hey Ines, how are you today?’ 

That anxiety peculiar to being shy and having to engage in conversation with someone you barely knew set in for her. Essentially this was exactly the same situation, but with the added detriment of being unable to see her speaking partner, her fears were exacerbated. She had been typing for thirty seconds now. ‘About as well as I could be.’ Her thumb hit send, palm slapping her forehead not soon after. What was she? Dying? The handle of the pickaxe felt splintered now that she’d wandered over to try and pull it from the trunk of the poor cherry tree it had landed in.

‘That’s good.’

Ines paused her magical probing of the state of the tree and the tool send her next message. ‘Indeed it is.’ A grimace pulled at her cheeks and turned the corners of her mouth down. She could practically feel the conversation dying, much like the thirty-eight year old plant in front of her. Claire was getting put on hold for now- she’d had machinations for this tree the moment she’d spotted it from across the yard, and those plans were not going to be ruined by the fact that a tetanus-riddled pickaxe had landed solidly in its trunk. The phone took up residence in the front pocket of her overalls, one of her hands molding around the pickaxe’s handle with the confidence that came from familiarity. She eased it from the trunk, blue light zinging along the cracks in the wood and mending it back to working order as she threw it down into the dirt to stand at an angle. A couple of her fingers broke this time, mending nearly immediately like always as she prepared to sacrifice a couple square feet of grass for the greater good of the garden (and her health, if Alfred’s apparent love of cherry-flavored things was anything to go by). This was why she almost preferred the necromantic aspects of her magic over the other ones- there were clear-cut, easy to follow lines of equivalence, and it wasn’t hard for her to do her part to help maintain that balance and make everyone happy. Plus, there were generally no odd backfires to casting spells of that particular nature. A win-win, as Alfred liked to say. Her phone buzzed. “Just a minute,” she muttered. The odd gray-green light that she knew as death energy covered her arm as she pressed her palm flatly to the trunk of the tree and focused. It buzzed again. “Just a minute, okay?” The grass she was exchanging died, fueling the reknitting that the fibrous flesh of the tree was doing and creating a perfect, untouched-looking layer of bark once she was done. There. 

Pulling the phone back out, whimsy struck her and she kicked the pickaxe back up into the air and caught it by the very end of the handle, swinging it to land on her shoulder in the same movement as she unlocked the device. 

‘Hey girl how are you’ was followed by ‘Sorry, KT and Amelie stole my phone. How would you feel about hanging out with us on our next day off? Like maybe going to the mall or something?’

She kicked a rock out of her way with enough force that it sailed over the chain-link fence twenty meters away and disappeared into the woods surrounding the back of the home. A quick search on the Cosmopolitan Thesaurus website told her what the hell ‘hanging out’ meant, another easy search on Goggle easing the confusion of why Claire, KT, and Amelie would want to sit around in a field on their rest day. ‘Much obliged- when are we going?’ It would be easier to just hold the phone and type with magic while she worked, so that was what she did, thank God for the availability of that solution. The phone floated in front of her face, buzzing once again. 

‘This saturday, is that cool?’ 

Ines nodded, the phone responding by tapping out a ‘yes’ and sending the reply as she finally got the rock she wanted to out of its place in the dirt. It landed in the pile she’d made with a satisfying clunking noise, and judging by how many stones she’d managed to dig up and how many there were left, she’d have enough for at least an herb spiral or two, which would save Al the effort of having to go to the grocer’s when the time finally came, especially given that she’d managed to uncover some vegetable seeds in the back shed. It wasn’t like she really needed to worry about money anymore, it was that this kind of self-sufficiency came naturally to her and it just felt right. Something familiar in all this upheaval. 

Packets of flower seeds and bulbs waved teasingly in front of her nose as she squatted to inspect the soil, her thick eyebrow raising at Gravy, who was flaunting one package with a glossy picture of little purple and blue flowers in particular. She smiled at him and took the seeds momentarily, snorting at the species name. “You uh, you sure do know how how to pick ‘em Gravy. This garden’s gonna look downright quaint.” They might be able to get planting if they got a little get ‘em up and go. 

/\~/\~/\~/\~/\~/\

Alfred strolled through the door like he hadn’t been avoiding coming home for hours after Claire got off work. The door clicked shut behind him, deadbolt sliding into place as he wandered into the kitchen to investigate the faint salt smell of warm takeout. He found a container of sesame chicken and rice waiting for him and he scowled. This was not as conducive to staying furious with Ines as stewing through the latest Protectors of the Planets movie and then skulking in the back of the local Grain King sub sandwich shop had been. Oh, and it was still warm, too- of all the dastardly things she could do, he’d never thought Ines could sink this low. Petulant grumbles made their way past his teeth as he held the container over the garbage can with every intention of dumping the food and then pouting himself to sleep, but the sweet siren call of MSG had other plans in store for him. Mainly investigating whatever it was that had just fallen off of the bottom of the takeout container and into the trash. His breath stalled when he plucked it from the bottom of the empty bag (when had that happened?), fingers of the hand holding the takeout clenching tightly around the sharp edges of the plastic lid. It was an empty packet of Forget-Me-Nots, a little note scrawled in the light spaces of the photo on the front in Ines’ small, elegant script. 

‘Gravy says you can stop looking for them now.’ 

Bothering with things like tables and chairs seemed stupid at the moment all things considered, doubly so that he was already on the floor, knees to chest and palm pressed to mouth, muffling his sobs. Gravy. He gave a full-throated bark of laughter that warbled and then broke, dissolving back into tears that were making their way down his cheeks and splattering against the floor haphazardly while his shoulders continued to tremble. The lid of the plastic container made an obnoxious ripping sound as he tore it from its hold on the base, the disposable spoon following it to the other side of the kitchen when it snapped in half. He didn’t care anymore, he didn’t care. He mixed the rice and excess sesame sauce together with his index finger before spooning some of it into his mouth, a couple chunks of the chicken following suit. Blue eyes squeezed shut as he choked on the food, his lips opening as half-chewed pieces of chicken and rice flew everywhere before he swallowed thickly and got another mouthful, drops of snot and tears plopping into the container. The lukewarm temperature was disgusting on his tongue but he kept eating, anything to keep from focusing too much on why exactly it was he was crying on his kitchen floor at midnight on a Wednesday. 

Ines paused at her bedroom door, forehead pressed to the hollow plywood construction, doorknob already half-turned as she listened to Alfred wail. Out of the corner of her eye, Gravy shook his head and patted the seat of her desk chair. “Ain’t right,” she whispered. 

Gravy nodded, lips pressing into a small, sad smile. 

The container was empty now, and so was he- at least, that was what it felt like, the corners of his eyes stinging sharply. Life really fucking sucked sometimes, and he was beholden to the shitshow until he dissolved which, no, there wasn’t anything certain even in that- prime example: Turkey. That asshole had popped right back to life immediately after his dissolution in 1923. Based on that, he would only get about five years of peace if dissolution ever happened to him. “Jesus Al, enough with this grimdark bullshit.” He wiped away the partially-dried tears on his cheeks, then got up and threw away the container, doing the same with the lid and broken spoon and then washing his hands to get rid of the residual sauce and grains of rice sticking to them. The little bits of food he’d sprayed all over the kitchen earlier were swiped up with a damp paper towel before he could forget about it, eyes straying to the sliver of Ines’ bedroom door that he could see and then to the flower packet. He really didn’t feel like talking to anyone right now, so he’d do the next best thing. 

She heard something slide under her door, then quiet footsteps retreating down the hall and the soft thud of Alfred’s bedroom door closing. A half-frown tugged at the muscles in her cheek as she swiveled in her chair to see what it was he’d wanted her to have. It was the packet the Forget-Me-Nots had been in, a shakily-written response to her note scrawled on the underside. 

‘Okay.’

Ines figured that was all the forgiveness she was going to get, and somehow it felt better than if he’d tried to tell her in person. 

/\~/\~/\~/\~/\~/\

“So like, how are we gonna play this?” KT stared at Claire from the back seat, their eyes meeting in the rear-view mirror for a few seconds. “We know she’s not...up to speed with the times, so how are things gonna work?” Claire’s shrug did not ease her worries as to how the fuck they would be handling Ines’ social ineptitudes in a very public environment. The Crater County mall was hardly a maximum-security secret government facility that could go on lockdown at any moment they needed. 

“By ear, I guess.” 

KT scowled. “Very encouraging, Claire.” The volume in the car lowered by a couple notches, the crunchy bassline of the latest Calm Away From the Library album fading into the background as the woman driving huffed.

“What the hell else are we supposed to do, KT?” Claire’s hand waved to the side and then slapped back onto the steering wheel. “Honestly. The only thing we can do is just shoot straight with her and hope for the best.” As honestly frightening as that sounded. She made the turn into Alfred’s neighborhood, her blue jeep juttering a little on the transition from the smoother asphalt of the main road to the worn stretch that made up the path to his house, small rocks thrown up here and there, making pings against the car’s metal doors. 

“Let’s all have a little more faith in Ines, guys. She’s got this, and so do we.” 

Amelie’s cool, calming voice cut through the nervous atmosphere like a knife, reassurances sitting warmly in her friends’ chests as the three of them pulled to a stop in Alfred’s driveway. There, sitting on the stoop in the selfsame pair of overalls and off-white cotton shirt they’d met her in, was Ines. Now or never. Claire snapped the moment by rolling her window down and waving her over. 

“Hey Ines! We saved shotgun for you!” Claire patted the seat next to her, rolling her window back up as Ines made her way around the front of the jeep and swung herself in. A beat passed, the brunette lightly coughing when the woman next to her didn’t buckle her seatbelt. KT caught her attention in the rear-view mirror, fingers shifting quickly as she signed to her in ASL. 

‘She doesn’t know what a seatbelt is!’

Oh, fuck! Claire could’ve slapped herself in exasperation- it was too easy to forget that Ines had only been in a car once (and the fact that that was when she had passed out from a panic attack). “You have to buckle your seatbelt Ines,” her finger pointed to the black band secured across her chest, “You do it by pushing that metal tab by your elbow into this mechanism by your hip, see?” Ines cocked her head and leaned towards her, curiosity lighting up her features momentarily as she inspected the buckling system before finally leaning back into the passenger seat and clicking her own into place. Claire smiled as she began to pull out of the driveway, the motherly side of her glad to have been of help. 

“We ready to hit the town, ladies?” If there was anything KT expected to come of her icebreaker, it most certainly was not the low, yet confident murmur of ‘Fo shizzle, my homedog’ that Ines presented her with. It made her entirely confused, stemming from the fact that she couldn’t tell if Ines was making a joke, or if she genuinely thought people still said that without any flavoring of irony to their intentions. A wide grin cracked her features- Ines was a natural at modern life. “Awesome, Ines! You’re gonna to love it.” She knew that everyone would think she meant the mall, but that didn’t really faze her- her big brown eyes saw great things in the latina’s future. It made her a little misty-eyed. 

“Okay, so, I made us all get up this early so that we could get the max amount of time spent in there- there’s a lot of shopping to be done, and limited time in which to do it.” And by limited, Claire of course meant fourteen hours. They’d probably only use eight to twelve of them, anyway. No biggie. Her thoughts of new clothes stalled as a question surfaced from among them, a blue iris sneaking sidelong glances at Ines as she wondered if it would be rude to ask. 

“Um, y-yes, Claire?” 

Caught in the act, huh? No point in being shy now, she supposed. “Are those the same clothes you had when you first arrived at the BHI?” She tried to keep her tone as friendly as possible without sounding patronizing.

“Yes! Aren’t they nice?” Ines uncurled her hand from around the part of the seatbelt that was resting on her chest as she began to relax a little. “Had ‘em for around a century and a half and they just don’t wear out none. Paid a bit for ‘em, but you can see they were worth every dollar.” Sure they were patched in a few odd places and she may have been using magic to keep one of the straps in working order, but really they were just wonderful. “My boots are about as old, and the only thing I ever had to do to ‘em was keep mold from growing in the soles.” That had been a nasty surprise the first time it had happened. 

“They look great Ines,” Amelie smiled, “Are you excited to see what modern fashion is like?” She liked how easy it was to smile around Ines, her excitement infectious. 

“Very much. I watched some videos about it on ViewTube, but I get the feeling that it wasn’t an accurate depiction of the usual clothes I’m likely to see on the street.” Secretly, she was hoping very much that the gauzy dresses and strappy heels were common- from the moment she’d seen the models walking down the assorted runways looking more like art than living people she had been entranced. 

“You’re right about that, at least for casual fashion. People only tend to dress like that if they’re wealthy in the extreme.” Which, in all technicality, everybody in the jeep was. 

Ines was glad to find that the news didn’t make her too crestfallen- she hadn’t really expected anything less than the answer she’d gotten. Her eyes widened as they exited the trees shading the end of the road they were on, the car pulling out into the most dense collection of cement and steel she’d ever seen in her life. “I-I guess wood fell outta fashion as building material.” And greenery had fallen out of fashion in general, it seemed- no fields or copses in sight. 

“Ines, bricks were invented like way before you came into existence, right?”

“Well yeah, KT. Bricks been around longer than I have, but I thought building with ‘em was more of a New Orleanian sorta thing.” She shrugged. “Risk of flooding and all that- levees like to break.” Her quarter had never flooded, though. She made sure of that. 

“Well you just wait Ines,” Claire chuckled, “We’re not even in downtown yet.” Though they were getting pretty close; more skyscrapers began to pop up, their sides coated in sheets of slick-looking black glass and gigantic advertisements. The manicured nail of her thumb swiped over the skip button embedded in her steering wheel, eyes roving along the galaxy-print plate she’d had put over her stereo display. The gigantic, cosmopolitan mall loomed like a deadly monolith in the distance, as if ready to devour them. Brown hair shifted slightly and a nervous shudder ran through her frame. She hoped to jesus Ines was ready for this. 

A comfortable semi-silence fell, none of the women in the car speaking as they listened to the radio and clipped down the freeway, the heart of the city drawing closer at an even pace. The jeep turned as Claire spotted the familiar banners of the Crater County mall decorating the parking deck they all needed, its driver glad that her music played off of a wireless connection and not satellite. Three floors up, they finally found a parking space, Claire pulling in neatly and engaging the emergency brake. 

“Okay kids, pile out!” 

Ines watched Claire a bit warily as she depressed the button to unbuckle her seatbelt, the gleam in the brunette’s eyes slightly concerning to her. The soles of her boots hit the floor of the building they were in with a slightly jarring amount of force, the utter lack of cushioning to the material shocking her. Modern construction seemed to favor being as rough and brutal as possible. A sharp skittering noise caught her attention around a second before something small and uncomfortably angled landed all the way down in her boot, KT’s guffaws letting her know that Amelie had somehow managed to kick a stray pebble with just the right force to fly up and into her shoe. Her lips curled as an amused snicker bubbled up at Amelie’s embarrassed expression, the jeep dipping slightly as she sat on the bar running the length of its underside and started loosening her bootlaces, the leg of her overalls bunching around her knee. 

“Uh, Ines?” KT paused, eyeing more and more of a bare, bronzed foot as the boot made its way completely off and upside down. “Do- where are your socks?” If she didn’t have socks now, then when…?

“Bottom of the Mississippi Delta, best I could figure by the river currents that day. Thought I was gonna get new ones issued but no, there’s a damn shortage of ‘em.” Ines narrowed her eyes as she remembered how she lost her socks, an old annoyance rising to the top of her mind like a weed. “Some jaundice yellow, choleric-looking jackass stole ‘em while I was doing laundry and tossed ‘em downstream.” Her boot slid back on, laces tightening into place. “Said they were ‘too good to go on the feet of some loamy-looking mongrel’.” A victorious snarl tugged at her features as the sole of the boot slapped the ground a couple of times. “I beat his ass seven ways to Sunday for it, and when he tried to get me thrown out of the regiment the commanding officer sided with me.” A contented, wistful sigh escaped her. “Felt damn good.” People like that had affected her greatly when she was still very young, but as time had gone on she’d realized that they were both wrong and usually all talk. The latter made it even easier for her to win the eventual fight that ensued. 

“O-oh.” A large part of KT felt abashed, ashamed that she’d ignored the fact that Ines would have experienced things like that on a regular basis, another, possibly larger, at least equal part of her hating that Ines would probably still experience it. Her eyebrows set into a defiant glare as the more muscular woman rose from her perch and set pace with Claire, angry thoughts thrumming just behind her forehead. She couldn’t stop it from happening, but she sure as hell could speak up about it. An idea popped into her head when the glass of the automatic doors came into view, just beyond them the familiar, mint-colored neon of one of her favorite places in the whole mall winking brightly at her. “How about we all hit the spa? That’ll give us time to wait while the shops finish opening up.” Amelie and Claire made made soft ‘oohs’ and KT smirked. Hook, line, and sinker. “Y’all go on ahead then, there’s something I need to do really fast.” Her wink was enough for the other two BHI Agents to play along and start to herd Ines towards the spa, Amelie signing quickly for her to hurry. Sort’ve unnecessary, considering that she already knew exactly what she wanted. 

Amelie’s blonde brows furrowed as she looked between two bottles of polish, completely undecided. One was a deep, velvety-looking blue, the other a pastel lavender. “Claire, which one?” She held up the little glass bottles to her taller friend’s scrutinizing, and she smiled at the way her lips pursed in concentration before smoothing out once more, Claire’s verdict reached. 

“I’ll get the lavender if you get the blue.” 

“Ooh, deal!” They swapped colors, the one Claire had originally chosen going back to its spot on the shelf. Amelie glanced over to Ines, who was looking more than a little lost in thought as she stared at the colors on the wall. “Do you want help picking a color?” Ines shook her head, holding up a matte pastel green for her to look at.

“Already decided. I was wondering what color KT might like.” She was also wondering when the tall woman was going to get here- she was excited. 

“Wonder no longer,” a suave voice said from behind them. “That purple is just my speed!” KT reached forward and plucked the colorful, glittery bottle from where it was, one of her hands hidden conspicuously behind her. “Let’s go get pampered! I was thinking manipedi, eyebrows, and face mask!” Her fingers plucked excitedly at the purchase behind her back.

“God KT, you really speak my language you know that?” 

“I know.” She winked at Claire. “It’s one of my magic powers.” 

Claire gasped as they were ushered to the back room of the spa to change into the fluffy white robes they’d been given, suddenly remembering some of the choice gossip Charles had passed her way a couple of days ago. She waited for the door to close, then pounced. “Speaking of magic powers- what was that you did to Director Pham, Ines?” Her blue-gray eyes narrowed slightly as Ines jumped a little. 

“Who uh, who aired that up?” 

“Just Charles. Don’t avoid the question! I’m curious, what spooked the unshakeable Pham Minh?” Well, Cassidy had told Agent Montoya, who had in turn told Charles, who had told her. That was beside the point. 

Ines squinted, extremely suspicious of this ‘oh, just Charles’ business. She’d leave it alone though, it seemed like Claire was keeping it vague intentionally to protect someone (her money was on Cassidy). “I told her that she had a death about her. It’s not something I’d lie about.” Minh had run out before she’d had a chance to inform her just how closely that the death had wrapped itself around her. 

“A- a death?” Claire blanched slightly. Sounded scary. 

Ines sighed and plopped herself down on the provided bench. “Yes, a death. I can sense it on people, like some kinda mud.” And here she came to the pivotal moment once more. If she told the three women in the changing room with her that she could raise bones and open gates to the plane of the dead, what would they say? There was only one way to find out, the women leaning in closely as she opened her mouth to say the words. “I’m a necromancer, of sorts.” Black eyes slid shut, expecting the worst. 

“Oh, if t-that’s all….That’s chill, right guys?” Definitely scary, but Ines was Ines was Ines, right? Claire thought so, at least. 

“Yeah! This doesn’t change how we feel about you, you know.” Amelie placed a gentle hand on Ines’ shoulder, smiling widely as the woman cracked a thickly-lashed eye open. 

“Y’all’re sure ‘bout that?” This couldn’t be happening, could it? 

“For sure! Now get into your robe, we’re getting spoiled today.” 

Ines smiled, mood skyrocketing from where it had been moments previously. She slid off her boots for the second time of probably many more that day and then stood, moving behind the provided screen so that she could change. The robe felt cloud-soft on her skin, the material leaving the sensitive flesh of her back miraculously unirritated. This was something she could get used to. 

The attendant knocked on the door, leading them out to a group of four pedicure chairs, their tubs already full of warm, bubbling, shockingly blue water. They all placed their chosen colors onto the little tables at the base of their chairs and sat down, Claire and KT grabbing a magazine to look at while Amelie settled on watching the TV mounted to the far wall. The attendant came back after a few minutes, hands full with four bowls full of brightly-colored, putty-like substances. He set all but one of them down, proceeding to paint what was in the bowl he had onto Claire’s face, repeating the process with the other three women until all the bowls were empty. 

Ines furrowed her brows at the others, blushing slightly when they giggled. “Feels funny, y’all.” She could see the barest hint of a hot pink at the edge of her vision, Amelie’s face an equally bright green. 

“At least yours isn’t orange, Ines,” KT grimaced slightly before schooling her expression. “Try not to move your face or talk, it could crack the mask.” 

Ines nodded, eyes shifting over to settle on the TV like Amelie’s had. The water felt nice on her ankles. She didn’t notice that she had begun to doze off somewhat until she was shocked to full awareness by someone gently grabbing her left leg. She looked down, a new attendant beginning to scrub the bottom of her foot with a rough purple stone before repeating the process on the other foot and then rinsing the stone off and pumping some sort of fruity-smelling grease into their palm. A soft laugh escaped from between her clenched teeth as they began massaging it onto her legs, fingers tickling along the edges of her kneecaps. 

Claire snorted quietly as she watched Ines squirm slightly in her chair, the muted sounds of nail clippers snipping away filling the air and then falling away. There was a cooling sensation on her toenails as the first layer of basecoat was applied, followed a few seconds later by the second coat and then the lavender nail polish. Topcoat was added and her toenails were officially done, the attendant spraying them with a quick-dry solution and then instructing her to come over to the reclining chair so that her eyebrows could be threaded and tweezed. This had been a long time coming, honestly. She sat up once her eyebrows were done and tried to brace for her least favorite part of the whole face mask deal. Ripping the damn thing off. 

A few minutes later KT sat down next to Claire, her eyes still watering from the stinging in her cheeks when the face mask had come off. “I hate that part. What’re you getting on your nails?” She eyed the little boxes of nail decorations, looking for any that caught her attention in particular. 

“Stars! What about you?” Claire eyed the little rhinestone in the middle of the first of the ten appreciatively. 

Brown eyes landed on a tub of day glo nail stickies, and she smiled excitedly. “Looks like a good day for pineapples.” Amelie plopped into the chair next to her, cheeks slightly red. “Like any of the decorations, Amelie?” The blonde nodded happily at KT, chin jerking towards a little box full of enamel flowers.

“Those morning glories are to die for.” 

It felt strange for her eyebrows to be touched, but not wholly uncomfortable. What she was really worried about was getting the dried putty taken off of her face. All three of the women to go before her had flinched and sucked breaths in through their teeth, their hands curling tightly around the armrests of the strange chair she herself was currently on. It was a little nerve wracking, but she held completely still as the man hovering over her peeled back the edge of the mask and then jerked it off in one smooth movement. Ines sat there, as stone faced as she had been before the mask was taken off, left feeling a little confused. This had felt bad to them? It hadn’t been anywhere near enough to make her cry out- she stopped herself right there. Pain was pain, and if it hurt for them to do that, she’d respect it. Her shoulders flexed as she was led to yet another chair, the attendant asking if she wanted any ornaments put on her manicure. Scarred lips pursed as she hummed and looked over her options, a group of little golden suns catching her eye. “The suns on my middle fingers, pretty please.” The attendant nodded and began applying her nail polish, nudging a bottle out of the way in order to get better access to her pinkie finger. “What’s in that, if you don’t mind me asking?” She pointed her chin at the bottle in question when the attendant shot her a confused look. 

“That’s marbling solution, ma’am. Would you like some?”

Ines nodded eagerly. “J-just my thumb nails, if you please.” Damn she could get used to the modern life- soft mattresses, food brought to your house for you, and spas? Hell yes. Her face felt baby soft, dammit! She thanked the man who’d done her nails for her once he was done and marveled at the precise cut and mirror shine of the polish. It was beautiful, but she had the gut feeling it wasn’t going to stand up to her gardening habits. She rose from the chair and made her way back to the changing room to get dressed, slipping back behind the screen so that she didn’t have to worry about being seen. Her cotton shirt slid easily over her head, the straps of the overalls settling onto her shoulders in their usual spots. Turning and reaching under the bench her clothes had been hanging off of, she froze as her hand met nothing but thin air. Where were her boots? Her heart restarted when she realized that they were under a bench, it just wasn’t the bench she was currently hunched over. Walking out into the main area of the dressing room with the robe folded carefully over her arm, her brow quirked at the sight of colorful fabric sitting on top of the dark leather of her boots. “What’s all this?” Setting the robe down, she grabbed the fabric and turned it over a couple of times, eyes taking in several small, blockish figures and a strange, cubelike environment. 

“I got you some socks!” KT blurted out. “They’re Superb Rosario, which I don’t think you know who that is yet, but I hope you like them just the same.” 

“I do.” And it wasn’t a lie. There was something undeniably charming about the little characters and their cube world, the loud colors seeming to brighten the air around the socks. They felt new and sort of starched on her feet, but the odd feeling faded as soon as her boots were on. 

KT pumped a fist in the air. “Yes! I knew you would! Just wait until I get you into WackyZaniacs, it’s going to be amazing-”

“KT, focus! We need to be in the zone out there!” 

“I know, I know, I’m gonna show her my tattoo though!” She slid the leg of her pants up, baring a colorful 8-bit style tattoo of a little boy and a strange-looking penguin. “Isn’t she a beaut?” A smug smile crawled across her face at Ines’ awed expression. 

“That’s a tattoo? With all those colors it must’ve cost a fortune!”

KT shrugged. “Only about two hundred or so- what’s wrong?” Ines’ eyes had bugged in shock, the mestiza choking on her spit as KT had been talking. “Oh! I get it! Don’t worry Ines, two hundred today isn’t as much as it was in, say, eighteen-sixty. The dollar’s worth a lot less now than it was before.” God it was easy to forget Ines’ actual age. Too easy. 

“Still….do all y’all have tattoos?”

“Yup, and so does nearly everyone we know. They’re a lot more accessible now- I can show you some good studios if you end up wanting to get some ink!” Amelie flashed her shoulder, showing Ines the three winged orbs imprinted into the flesh. 

Amazing. She might take Amelie and the others up on that at some point. 

“Okay, now that we’ve gotten all spruced up let’s hit the mall!” Claire shooed everyone out of the dressing room, giggling as they snatched up their bags. They all paid, pausing at the threshold of the spa before stepping purposefully out onto the main thoroughfare of the upper floor. “Do you smell that, Ines?” She took a comically large breath and wheezed it out, her hands jazzing spastically. “That’s the smell of commercialism and a good time!” She set off down the walkway, keeping pace with the others as they all hemmed and hawed over which store to go into first.

After they went into the first store (a hat shop) to buy a snapback for Ines (KT’s insistence) it was like a chain reaction, the women going into store after store and coming out with at least one item each, Ines herself quickly accumulating a collection of clothes and jewelry the others had insisted on purchasing for her after she modeled the items for them. By the eighth store, they had noticed a problem- lots of bags, very little arm space. So it was decided that they needed to pause, Ines insisting she could work some sort of wonder so that each woman only had to carry one bag. Her fingers danced along various slick plastic bags, combining their contents and setting aside the empty ones to be put into one of the many recycling bins around the mall. Once she was done, each woman reached down for their respective bags, Amelie having barely stooped down when a sharp whistle lanced through the air. 

“Damn, I always liked blondes with fine asses.” The source practically yelled. 

A beat passed before Claire and KT were on him like sharks, Ines hanging back to stand with Amelie as she shifted uncomfortably. 

“Get the fuck away from us you piece of shit!” Claire growled, eyes flicking along the man’s frame with utter disgust. 

“And you’d better stay the fuck away or you’ll regret it.” KT meant it, too. No skinny, catcalling loser was going to hang around them, and she’d make damn sure of that. Turning smartly, she flounced over to Amelie and grabbed her hand, leading her towards one of the largest stores in the whole mall- Eternally 22. “It’s never a true mall crawl until you make it in there. Besides, Ines needs to get baptized!” Claire fell into step at her right side, she and Ines forming a mock honor guard around her and Amelie. 

“But I am baptized, KT.” 

The tall brunette laughed at the confusion in Ines’ tone. “It’s a figure of speech, Ines- it just means it’s the first time you’ve ever shopped at Eternally twenty-two.” This was going to be a religious experience, to say the least. They passed the threshold into one of the most liminal spaces she’d ever experienced in her life, the sunlight seeming to brighten as vaguely-tropical, dreamlike songs about love and parties played both too loudly to ignore and too softly for anyone to understand the words. KT grinned- she was home. “To the clearance racks!” Snagging a ludicrously well-paying government job hadn’t done anything to curb the penny-pinching habits of her childhood, that was for damn sure. 

They weren’t even halfway around the large space and already their arms were loaded down with all sorts of shirts and pants and jackets. Ines feared for the state of their carrying load, especially since KT had claimed that they were only about a third of the way through the mall. Damn if it wasn’t the most fun she’d had in a while, though, possibly some of the most fun she’d had ever. She paused, hand running along a silky blouse as she considered the validity of that statement. Third most fun, she decided. 

“Ines! Come check out these shoes!” Claire called. “I think they’d look killer with your skin tone!” 

She smiled, wandering over to look at what her friend was talking about. 

They moseyed out of their twenty-seventh store a couple of hours later, faces dewey-looking with professional makeup artistry and mostly empty cups of bubble tea clasped in their hands. Amelie shivered, shifting so that she was walking closer to Claire as the same guy from earlier stared her down from across the second floor with a dumb, appraising smile that gave her the creeps. 

"Ya need me to rough 'em up?" 

She jumped slightly in surprise at Ines' low growl by her ear, the taller woman bristling angrily and attempting to shield her from the man's view. "N-no," she whispered, a sudden idea springing to mind, "But maybe he'll just go away if he thinks we're going out?" Ines grinned and slung an arm over her shoulders as naturally as if she were breathing, a quick peck pressing to her cheek. It was slightly startling, but she appreciated the sick acting skills. 

"Maybe so. Let's test it out." She took the time to shoot the man a withering glare, linking her hand with Amelie’s and pressing another quick kiss to the top of her knuckles in his direct line of sight. A smug smile tugged at her lips when he rolled his eyes and began walking in the other direction. 

“Oh, ye olde fake dating trope?” KT waggled her eyebrows and pulled Claire closer to her. “Let’s make this trouble double, shall we client?” 

“Oh yes,” Claire swooned, an arm draped theatrically over her forehead. “Lets!”

Things went on like that, KT ‘surprising’ Claire with her favorite chocolates, the four of them getting amused stares as they walked into more stores until it was nearly time to leave. 

“I think we have time for one more, and some food, but then we have to get out of here.” Claire looked around, trying to find a store they hadn’t been in yet. “Hey- what about Francesco’s? It’s right by the food court.” There was a chorus of agreement, and they all headed for the escalators. 

Ines shook her head in incredulity at the contraptions. “I’ll never get over the fact y’all have moving stairs.” They were amazing to her, their constant, sinuous motion mesmerizing. Her nose perked up as the main floor of the mall got closer, delicious smells wafting across the open space and around the roundabout in the center. Wait. “They have a roundabout here!” She raced off of the escalator and over to the cheap metal fence that cordoned off the machine from the rest of the shoppers, eyes wide as they took in the painfully detailed animals on their spokes. 

“You wanna ride on it, Ines?” Amelie waved her debit card happily and walked over to the token machine to buy four. “Let’s go! Dibs on the wolf!” Peals of laughter echoed around them as they passed their tokens to the operator and climbed aboard, Amelie snagging the wolf for herself.

“If we’re calling dibs I get the deer! Yakul is mine!” KT crowed, grinning at Claire, who had taken up residence on the lion directly behind her, its mane wildly stylized. 

“Then I’ll get on the gray thing with the funny-looking nose!” Ines swung her leg over the creature’s back and admired the long, toothlike projections protruding from its mouth. Her arms were still occupied by the bags much like the others’ were, which made it slightly awkward but no less enjoyable when the roundabout began to spin, slowly gaining speed as it moved along its transit and blared a catchy song about a ball game that KT, Amelie, and Claire apparently knew all of the words to. She smiled for the nth time that day. 

A few minutes passed, the steady rhythm of the machine finally faltering slightly and beginning to slow, then stopping completely, but not before Amelie managed to snag a photo of them all riding and texted it to them via a groupchat. “Okay guys, last store!” Her knees popped as she disembarked and a slight grimace made its way across her features- she was too young to be creaking like this. 

They made their way back across the food court and towards Francesco’s, the store much smaller than many of the other shops in the mall but no less full of interesting wares. Ines was eyeing a forest green silk skirt with a slit in the side and a large, droopy bow on the hip when a white, lacy dress was shoved practically up her nose. She looked to KT and Claire inquisitively, her (now perfectly shaped) eyebrow quirking upwards.

“You have to try this on!” Claire paused, her blue-gray eyes seeming to critique the skirt before she nodded resolutely. “The skirt, too. It’ll look stunning.” She looked around, holding up a finger for Ines to wait while she loped across the store to grab a belle-sleeved, off shoulder crop top and then back again. “This too, it’ll match the skirt.” She nudged Ines into one of the changing rooms and tugged the curtain closed, humming in anticipation. 

Ines’ mouth felt like hot, dry cotton. This looked stunning alright. Stunningly bad. The thin straps of the dress felt feather-light on her shoulders, holding up the bodice and baring her back to the air. She shifted uncomfortably, ignoring the reflection in the dressing room mirror and pawing gently at the layers of the skirt as they brushed against the bare skin of her knees. Her lip caught between her teeth, the flesh getting worried relentlessly as she tried choking down the disgust she felt rising at the back of her throat like so much vomit. Maybe she was going to throw up. This had been such a shit idea, she couldn’t properly articulate how shit it was- her shoulders trembled. It was time to leave. 

“Ines? You gonna show us how the dress looks?” 

No. She wasn’t. 

“Ines? Is everything alright in there?” 

No, it wasn’t. Her stupid ugly scars were out, and up front, and she looked hideous.

The very edge of the curtain pulled backwards, KT sticking her head in and gasping in shock. Her palm slapped over her mouth and she made a point to stare only at Ines’ face from then on, though her eyes kept straying momentarily to the scarred flesh of the woman’s back. “What happened to you?” It was only a whisper, but Ines reeled back as if she’d been slapped.

“KT, what- oh.” Amelie’s eyes rested firmly on what she could see of Ines’ back, unflinchingly absorbing every detail of the oblong (suspiciously lash-like) divots and patchy, angry pink burn scars surrounded by badly-healed skin. She wanted to say something, but the unguarded, plaintive look on her friend’s face made her words stall out. What was she supposed to say to her when she looked so ready to run away from the whole situation? 

“I got my ass beat. A lot. And now I’m fucking hideous.” Ines snarled. “That’s what happened to me, KT. I have no idea why I let myself even try this on, because I knew the end result would look about as bad as it does.” 

“Then you must be pretty ecstatic, seeing as you look drop dead gorgeous in that lace.” 

Ines sneered at the blithe quality to Claire’s voice. “It doesn’t-”

“Ines, would you kindly shut the fuck up? You look amazing, and those scars don’t do shit to detract from that.” Claire smiled. “Those scars aren’t you- they’re not Ines. They’re a part of your body, not a part your self.” She walked forward, letting the curtain fall closed again as her hand fell gently onto Ines’ bronzed shoulder. “I swear- you’re one of the best-looking women I’ve ever seen, and it makes me really sad to hear you talk about yourself like that.” The more she looked at Ines’ back, the more furious she became, her frame beginning to shudder violently as her hands clenched tightly into fists. “To better phrase KT’s question, who happened to you?” Her nails bit into the meat of her palms as Ines teared up slightly and then wiped the offending droplets away, letting them skitter on the floor away from her feet as they cooled off. 

“I- they’re long dead by now. I don’t wanna think about it.” 

And they’d better be damn glad they were. Claire’s face softened, she and the others wrapping Ines in a gentle hug, which she reciprocated. “We’re here for you Ines. All the way.” She leaned back, her hair falling over her shoulder as they all untangled from each other and a misty smile bloomed across her expression. “Nothing leaves this changing room except you and those hella cute outfits, right guys?” Amelie and KT nodded vigorously in agreement, and they all slipped out of the room and into the store to the sound of a faint ‘thank you’. 

Ines stepped out into the muted light of the store a few minutes later, all changed back into her overalls and feeling happier but very bittersweet about the whole affair. She set the dress, top, and skirt onto the counter to be rung up and stepped back slightly to grab for the debit card in her front pocket, Claire plopping a pendant necklace in the shape of a section of honeycomb down on top of it and swiping her debit card before she could get a word in edgeways. 

“I think it’s time we give Alfred’s card a rest- don’t you, Ines?” Claire was going to ignore the little pile of receipts sitting in the bottom of her purse. 

“God, forget Alfred,” KT groaned as they walked out of the store, “I think I blew a fifth of my paycheck!” 

“Well it’s a good thing you live in government-subsidized housing.” Amelie snickered.

“And the bills are so cheap, too.” Claire added. 

“Oh, hush!” KT tried to sound angry but failed, her voice cracking slightly from the strain and warbling oddly. She snorted, a small amount of spit flying out of her mouth as a series of cackles filled the air alongside her own. “God, let’s just get some food to go and get out of here- these bags are heavy.” Even with all of Ines’ skill at compaction, she’d still ended up with five large bags that were full to bursting with new purchases. 

“There’s that fruit stand right by where we need to exit, right?” 

“Oh hell yes, Claire! The one with the chocolate dipped salted watermelon?” KT high-fived the other brunette, her shoulders wiggling happily as they walked over to the bank of escalators and began to ascend. “Okay, riddle me this though- we have at least fifteen bags, and we’re about to buy a dozen wedges of watermelon,” she held up a finger as Amelie began to protest, “Don’t argue, I know us and we’re the dozen wedge kind of people. How are we going to climb into the car without some major spillage?” By the look on Amelie’s face, KT could tell she’d already thought this far ahead.

“Easy, KT- Ines and I will buy the watermelon, and you and Claire will load up the jeep. Sound solid?” 

“Oh for sure,” KT grinned, stepping off of the escalator, “Don’t keep us waiting too long.” She took Ines’ bags and followed Claire, who was letting the various space-themed charms on her keychain jingle as she walked. 

“Okay Ines, we’re going to show KT up,” Amelie held her hand by her cheek in mock secrecy, “She says we’re the dozen wedge sort, but I say we’re the two dozen wedge sort!” Which coincidentally totaled out to six slices of watermelon heaven per person, but that was beside the point. They’d figure out how to eat it all. Swapping her debit card for the cooled, disposable container, her mouth began to water as she considered just how long it had been since she’d last eaten. Ines grabbed her card for her and they began the walk out to Claire’s jeep, an easy silence settling between them. 

“Not holding hands anymore now that you’re done faking queer?” 

Ines stopped short on the curb, a slow smile traveling up her cheeks that fell just short of reaching her eyes. She turned, putting herself between Amelie and the crusty man. “If I’m not queer, you can actually take a hint.” The sound of a car pulling up and stopping caught her attention momentarily. “Get in the jeep. I’ll handle this.” It had been a hell of a long time coming- when had she last brawled someone?

“Not before I get her number, she’s not.” 

“Shut your mouth, son,” Ines frowned, “Before you say something you’ll regret.” 

“The only thing I regret is that a hot piece of ass like that is with a butch dyke like you.” 

She snorted in mirthless humor. “Why don’t you cry about it to someone who gives a shit?” A beat passed before a fist cracked across her face, and she smirked as he screamed out in pain- call it an unfair advantage, but an iron coating in her body definitely helped in fistfights, at least with mortals. His jaw crackled uncomfortably in her grasp, her hand wrapping completely around the lower half of his face to prevent him from screaming again as she lifted him completely off of the ground, his feet dangling limply. “You go anywhere near anyone like you just did and I’ll know,” Ines growled out, “Believe you me, I can be a whole lot rougher with worthless little buzzards such as yourself.” She dropped him, flicking the skin she’d melted from his face off of her hand and watching him scramble out of sight before climbing into the back seat of Claire’s car and buckling in. 

“Ines, that was….intense.” Claire’s eyes bugged at the disgruntled-looking woman from the rear-view mirror. 

She huffed out a sigh, nails scratching behind her ear. “You woulda done the same for me.” They didn’t deny it, at least. 

“Thanks.” 

“‘S no trouble on my part, Amelie. Though I am curious- what’s a dyke?” Ines’ cheeks flushed as the tense mood in the car burst into an uncontrollable fit of giggles. 

“He called you a lesbian, Ines.” KT chortled. “It’s not even considered all that derogatory anymore.” Oh god, this was almost too good. 

“Well he got that wrong,” she finally let out a laugh, “While I may prefer company of the feminine sort, I’m still partial to men.” Things had always been that way for her, and she liked it like that. 

/\~/\~/\~/\~/\~/\

Alfred refreshed flashtalk for what felt like the millionth time that day, hoping that Claire might have finally posted a flash to her story. No such luck. Dead blue eyes turned back to the television screen, which was paused on the strangest frame he could manage to find on this particular disk from his old cartoon collection. The character’s jaw was extended far beyond what was natural, its body looking like half-melted plastic, frozen in mid-animation of a scene in which it was intended to jerk back and begin to run comically fast. The clock ticked over to read a quarter till eight. He sighed, unpausing the film. He’d just have to find another wacky frame to impress Claire with. The doorbell rang in an obscenely loud rendition of the superman theme, startling the blonde from his stupor and towards the door from across the back of the couch. 

There was a loud crash, a couple of seconds passing before the door swung open fast enough that the hinges groaned, barely missing damaging the wall of the entryway. Ines raised her eyebrow at Alfred, who was practically hanging off of the front door like some kind of ape, his face bright with excitement. “You uh, you wanna let us in? We got watermelon.” She snickered as he scrambled out of the way, bumping her shoulder against his and shooting him a wide smile. “I gotta take these bags upstairs, but I’ll be back down.” She’d have to hang the clothes up and set aside the jewelry at some point, but that some point was definitely going to be later on or possibly tomorrow. 

“She….bumped me.” Alfred blinked, shocked speechless. That had been the first time she’d ever initiated casual contact in the span of time he’d known her. 

“Oh I know, right?” KT whispered. “She’s coming out of her shell a little bit, but I think it has layers. Like an onion.” 

“Let’s go eat this watermelon then,” Amelie whispered back. “Before she comes downstairs and thinks we’re being weird.” 

“We can do that easy! What’s more natural than watching cartoons on a Saturday afternoon?” Only eating while doing it, by Alfred’s estimation. Which the others were going to be doing. “How does the Detective sound?” He sat on the edge of the couch, pressing himself further into the corner when Claire sat next to him, a little bit of adrenaline entering his system as his heart began to pound. 

KT shifted her legs to the side to allow Ines to sit down as Amelie doled out slices of watermelon, taking her own and biting gently into the cold chocolate shell. “Ines,” the word got bastardized by the food still in her mouth, “Can I rest my legs on your lap?” Her legs flopped across the other woman’s lap when she nodded her assent, toes stopping just barely an inch from Amelie’s thighs. 

Ines kept stealing small glances at Claire and Alfred out of the corner of her eye. “Are they-”

“No,” Amelie whispered, “It’s sort of infuriating.”

Oh. 

“Oh my gosh Alfred! You don’t have any food!” Claire leant forward and nudged the flat of twelve slices closer to him. “You can have three of my six!” 

He picked up one of the pieces of fruit and smiled at Claire. “Thanks, you’re such a doll to me!” His finger poked at her cheek, stopping after a few seconds and resting on her arm, her head cradled in the crook of his elbow. 

They were shitting her. They had to be. Black eyes shifted over to lock with brown ones. 

“Unreal, isn’t it?” KT raised her eyebrows before taking the last bite out of her first slice and then grabbing another. “We’re all hoping for a miracle at this point.” She sighed- Claire’s love life would be a whole lot simpler if this were fanfiction, and not real life. 

Some time later Ines found herself sitting cross legged on the couch, munching on a slice of pizza and staring openly at Alfred. This beating around the bush thing really wasn’t her schtick. She chewed carefully, ruminating, then swallowed the pizza. “So, are you gonna ask to court her or what?” Her lips pressed together into the blandest expression she could muster as her blonde roommate choked on his gingerale, a fine mist of the stuff spraying halfway across the living room in a concentrated stream of utter shock.

He wheeled around to face the latina, feeling slightly betrayed. Of all the people to take him to task about Claire, none had managed to be quite so direct as the woman sitting three and a quarter feet away from him. “No.” Her eyebrow raised, and he felt himself flinch slightly. 

“And just why not, if I may be so bold as to ask?” 

It was his turn to raise his eyebrow. “Um? She’s mortal?” His fingers spread out slightly as his hands raised to chin-level. “It’ll never work out?” Both of her eyebrows raised now, and he could’ve groaned in pain.

“Never stopped me.”

Alfred froze as Ines reached for the remote and changed the channel to How It’s Constructed. She’d been in a relationship with a mortal before? That was some food for thought. “Who-”

“Her name was Charlotte,” Ines sighed, “And I loved her more fiercely than I have known any fire to burn or battle to rage.” Random flashes of golden hair and warm green eyes flickered across the barest reaches of her memories, but she focused on the tv before she could be too caught up in what spare remnants she had of Charlotte’s mischievous smile. “What have you got to lose, Alfred?” She turned her head to face him fully.

“I- I don’t know.” 

A bittersweet smile pulled at her lips- she wasn’t surprised by his answer. People hardly ever knew it. “You need to figure it out- not for Claire. For you. And do it before you have the chance to blink, ‘cause she’ll be gone.” Who knew that decorative soap making could be so akin to whittling? 

“Did you happen to get some formal wear while you were out?” 

Ah, her old friend. Avoidance. “No, why?” She’d play along.

“Because there are these things called world meetings, and since you’re technically my charge, you have to tag along.” 

“I what?” The pizza in her hand splattered sauce side down onto the styrofoam plate.

Ines was taking this about as well as expected- he was loathe to inform her about the aeronautics industry as it was, but this took the cake. It was time to practice his sales pitch. “They’re not that bad, the most you’ll have to do is bring something to entertain yourself with while I sit in a boring, day-long meeting where we don’t get anything done.” Alfred paused, considering introducing her to handheld gaming consoles or tablets. She still didn’t look convinced. “Look, it’s a meeting of exclusively immortals- what better way for you to get acquainted with people like us?” He waited, bait set and trap currently unsprung. 

She knew what he was doing, and was miffed that it was working. “Alright. I’ll go without a tussle.” Ines could damn her curiosity to hell all she wanted, but she knew that satisfaction would bring it back. “I’m going out back to garden.” There was nothing like a hoe slicing through soil to ease the nerves.

“Ines, at three in the morning-”

“Yes. I need to weed the garden so it doesn’t get choked out.” And it would give her some semblance of control over her decision-making. “There’s space enough back there to build a gazebo and hang some plants on it. We could also do with some more flowers- a magnolia tree, maybe?” Her next project was definitely going to be repairing the sheds he had back there as well. 

Alfred furrowed his brows, but schooled the concerned frown that threatened to appear. “I’ll see about getting the materials- we can go to Garden Mart or something. Be safe out there?” He had no doubts that Ines could fend off some scrappy raccoons, but it felt nice to have someone to say things like that to after being alone in the house for so long. 

The smell of the early-morning breeze and wet soil wafted across her face and soothed her. “I will, don’t worry.” She walked out, shutting the door behind her. The speed of life was a truly terrifying thing.


End file.
